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Chapter Text

“Welcome home, Ani!”

Hiroto could barely force a smile as his sister enthusiastically welcomed him home. He had just gotten back from a week in Europe, it being one of those occasions his father insisted he learn about running the company that would be his one day (something he groaned at just the thought of), some brief sightseeing hardly making up for the tedious meetings he was forced to endure. So eager was he to get home that when his flight was canceled, he took a coach seat on the next available one, leaving him sitting in between two old ladies and unable to sleep. With him now suffering from jet lag as well, he was in a thoroughly rotten mood.

He didn’t put up a fight, though, as Miu grabbed his arm and dragged him to the kitchen.

“I know you hate when you have to deal with business, so I figured we could celebrate you getting back.”

Arriving in the kitchen, she proudly presented a hideous looking mess.

“See, I baked a cake!”

Well, that explained the burnt curtains in the kitchen, as well as the empty fire extinguisher lying on the floor.

He sighed.

“I really appreciate you going through all this trouble, Miu, but to be honest right now all I really want to do is go to bed.”

Miu’s smile didn’t falter.

“Oh, it’s no problem, Ani, we can save it for tomorrow.”

Hiroto smiled as he hugged her.

“I don’t know what I did to deserve such a wonderful sister…”

Hiroto was about to head up to his bedroom when they both felt a sensation in their heads. They saw a petal fell from one of Miu’s flowers.

“Gaiark” said Miu.

Hiroto nodded.

“Let’s go.”

~~~

On the 18th floor of a skyscraper, Air Pollution Minister Kitaneidas was doing some final checking on his pad.

Behind him stood over a dozen barrels, a string attached to them all that ended in a detonator counting down.

“Everything copacetic, boss?”

The voice came from a being whose torso was a large round speaker in a black box, with arms that ended in two more speakers in place of hands. At the moment, he was moonwalking around the otherwise empty floor.

“Indeed, Boombox Banki. This confirms my calculations: if the explosion goes off at exactly 6:23 at this elevation, air currents will spread the gas all over the city.”

Putting the pad away, Kitaneidas headed out.

“You’re leaving?” asked Boombox Banki.

“Yes, I want to be gone before the explosion. That’s why you’re to remain here and make sure neither the Go-Ongers nor the Wings prevent it.”

“Ah, gotcha boss! You can count on me!” said the Banki Beast as he saluted the departing Kitaneidas.

Once the Pollution Minister was gone, the Banki Beast did his best to keep himself amused as he waited the clock out.

Oh, light, reach out for the angels of the city, like you could make the brightest dreams come true. With the sirens' wail, it is the time to dispatch, we will not let the French kisses go to sea…wait, is that how it goes? With the sirens' wail, it is the time to dispatch, we will not let the…the…the Maker damn it it’s on the tip of my speaker…Oh look it’s the Go-Ongers, hey I bet they know…wait, wasn’t that something I had to remember about them? Oh right!

“Hiya, Go-Ongers. You’re just in time for the fireworks to start!”

“Banki Beast, what’s in those barrels?!” demanded Sosuke.

Boombox Banki shrugged.

“Beats me. I’m just here to fight the power that be!”

The Banki Beast raised his arms, and waves of sound emerged from them, sending the Go-Ongers hurling back.

Man, thought Boombox Banki, it’s too bad they don’t have power in their names that’d been a great pun.

“You might as well head home to your mamas because you ain’t getting past me. Break it down!”

Boombox Banki dropped to the floor, laid on his back and started spinning while performing kicks.

Hant could not help but clap.

“Wow, you’re really talented!”

“Don’t praise the Banki Beast, Hant” said Gunpei.

“Yeah, guys” said Sosuke, “let’s beat him and deactivate this bomb at mach speed!”

They all charged their opponent, but he just twirled around as his legs kicked each of the Go-Ongers and sent them flying back.

“We’re going to have to find a different approach if we’re going to beat him before that thing goes off!” said Ren.

Suddenly, Birca appeared in hologram form out of Hant’s Shift Changer.

“Hant, I believe I can be of assistance. On Machine World, I was a master of all varieties of dance. I just need a body to serve him el dente.”

“I can help with that” said Sosuke as he took out what resembled a small tire.

“Go, GoRoader GT!” the Red Ranger called out as he threw the tire into the air, which grew and formed into a humanoid body.

Hant took out his partner’s Engine Soul and inserted it into the GoRoader.

“Hey b-Banki” said Birca as he walked up to the Banki Beast, “I’m calling you out! I challenge you to a dance off linguini!”

Boombox Banki saddled up to his challenger.

“You think you got the moves, homeboy? Then let’s bring ‘em!”

The Banki Beast started off by twisting his body while moving his arms up and down robotically, then dropping down and holding his hands on the ground while rapidly kicking his feet.

“Pretty fly” said Birca, “but can you do this Fellini?!”

Birca put one hand on the ground and used it to support his entire body as he spun around, the Go-Ongers cheering him on as he did so.

Boombox Banki huffed contemptuously.

“Your crew must be pretty new if they think that’s impressive. Let me show you how it’s done.”

The Banki Beast walked while shaking, the intensity increasing as he started simulating slowly collapsing to the floor like a rag doll, only to rise up again.

“Impressive” said Birca. “But get a load of this!”

He started to started dancing, kicking his legs up, then jumped, landed on the ground with a handstand, and started kicking his legs in all directions at a tremendous speed, before jumping back up.

“All right, all right, maybe you’re not a greenhorn” said Boombox Banki. “But try and match this!”

Boombox Banki jumped to the ground and did a headstand, and started twirling his body at a tremendous speed like a top.

“Two can play that game, amigo!” said Birca, who replicated the Banki Beast’s move.

“Why you whack-ass biter! I’ll show you!”

The two spun towards each other, sparks falling off as they made contact. After several goes at this, Birca sent the Banki Beast sliding into the wall.

The Go-Ongers applauded as Birca took a bow.

“Those moves were real fresh, Birca!” said Saki.

Hant removed the Engine Soul, and they rushed over to the detonator, their faces turning white as they found they had little over a minute left.

“Gunpei, did you learn bomb disposal as a cop?” asked Hant.

“Yeah. I mean, I was sleepy that day - some idiot’s car alarm was on all night - but I’m pretty sure I got the gist of it…”

He carefully opened the detonator, and examined it. There were two wires, red and blue.

“Well, judging from the appearance, cutting one wire will deactivate it, cutting the other will detonate it automatically…”

The others remained silent as Gunpei starred at the wires.

“10 seconds” said Hant.

Sweat ran down Gunpei’s forehead, as he tried to make a decision.

“5 seconds!” said Hant.

Gunpei screamed and cut the red wire.

The timer stopped, with 3 seconds to spare.

The Go-Ongers took a collective sigh of relief, all five slumping down to the floor.

Suddenly, sound waves hit right above their heads.

“Ha! You missed!” said Sosuke.

“Oh, did I?” said Boombox Banki.

He actually had, but luckily for him, his blasts did hit the barrels, unleashing a torrent of green gas. It came out fast, and before they could do anything the Go-Ongers found themselves enveloped by a cloud of it.

They all writhed as it seeped through their helmets, coughing as they struggled to breath. It was not long before they dropped to their knees.

Boombox Banki chuckled as he backed away from the scene.

“So long, Go-Ongers. It’s been a gas!”

~~~

Boombox Banki had rushed down the stairs. He knew Kitaneidas would be upset about the gas not going off, but he was sure having taken care of the Go-Ongers would more than make up for it.

He spied a window, and was about to take off when two figures flew at him, striking him as they passed by him. He looked as the Go-On Wings landed and posed.

“Awwww, two more of you? That’s not fair!”

Although Hiroto was tired and looking forward to sleep, he felt it was actually fortuitous to have had the Gaiark strike now. Once they were foiled, it would usually be a week, a few days at least, until they launched another scheme. If they destroyed this Banki Beast, he could rest without worry…

Boombox Banki growled and aimed his arms at them, letting two streams of sound loose.

The Wings easily dodged the attacks, and thrust forward their Jet Daggers.

“Burning Dagger!” said Hiroto, and the dagger sent a wave of flame at the Banki Beast, who cried out in pain.

“Freezing Dagger!” said Miu, and a cold mist emerged from the dagger that froze Boombox Banki in ice before it broke apart, causing the dazed Banki Beast to collapse.

The Wings turned to each other.

“Good work, Miu. Let’s finish him off.”

“Okay!”

“Hold on! Sure, you could finish me off, but even as we speak, your pals the Go-Ongers are choking on toxic gas upstairs! Maybe you can save them, though, if you hurry…”

Hiroto was still for a moment, then turned and ran up, Miu following right behind.

Boombox Banki chuckled as he pointed his arms at the ground, firing off continuous sound waves that propelled him in the air. He went through a the window and flew off into the sky.

~~~

The Go-On Wings arrived on the next floor, only to find it completely flooded with gas, obscuring everything.

Miu stuck out her Wing Trigger.

“Search Mode!” she said, and it’s thermal vision displayed the Go-Ongers laying on the ground, still conscious but only able to slowly writhe.

“Ani!” cried Miu in panic.

“Aim for the wall, we need to get rid of the gas!” said Hiroto.

The two aimed their Wing Boosters.

“Wing Booster! Boost Up!” they called out as they fired, blasting a hole in the wall.

They took their Jet Daggers out again.

“Tornado Dagger!” the Wings cried out, and two torrents of wind emerged, combining and growing larger, sucking up the gas then going through the newly created hole, carrying it into the upper atmosphere where it would disperse harmlessly.

With that done, the Wings’ focus turned back to the Go-Ongers.

“Are you guys okay?” asked Miu, helping them up.

The team took off their helmets as they took long deep breaths.

“Yeah…(huff)…I think so…” said Saki.

Gunpei went up to Hiroto, who was facing away with his arms crossed, and stuck his hand out.

“Thanks, Hiroto-“

“I don’t want to hear it” said the Gold Ranger, not even turning to look at them.

The Go-Ongers looked at each other in confusion.

“Ani?” said Miu, worried about where this was going.

“It’s because we had to rescue you the Banki Beast got away! Who knows what harm he’ll cause until we find him again!?”

“Ani…” said Miu, uncomfortable with what was transpiring.

“Well at least we stopped that bomb from going off!” said Ren.

“Yeah, Gunpei cut the wire with just seconds to spare!” said Hant.

“I see” said Hiroto. “Tell me, did you know which wire to choose? Or did you just pick one at random?”

The Go-Ongers stood silent.

“So you want to be praised for getting lucky? And why were you all focused on that anyway? You have five members, you could have easily dealt with the Banki Beast while Gunpei handled the bomb at the same time!”

“We…we felt we all needed to support Birca in the dance off” said Saki, meekly.

“‘Dance off’!?” Hiroto yelled in disbelief. “Unbelievable. Every living thing on this planet is depending on us, and you still act like children playing a game! When the hell are you all going to grow up!?”

“Ani!” shouted Miu.

Ren stepped up to the Gold Ranger.

“Hiroto, you are being completely out of line!” shouted the Blue Ranger.

“No” said Sosuke, standing and looking away from them. “Hiroto is completely right.”

Even Hiroto was taken aback at the Red Ranger’s statement.

“We’ve been fighting the Gaiark for over half a year and we’re still acting like amateurs. It’s unfair to burden the Wings with saving us every time we put our heads up our asses.”

“Sosuke, what are you saying?” asked Saki.

“I’m saying we’re supposed to be heroes. It’s time we acted like it.”

His fellow Go-Ongers considered his words.

“Sosuke is right” said Ren.

“Yeah!” said Gunpei.

At once, the Go-Ongers were all eagerly planning a training regime, any anger about Hiroto’s words seemingly forgotten.

“We’ll start first thing tomorrow!” said Ren.

“Why wait for tomorrow?” said Hant. “We can start tonight, once we get home!”

“That’s the spirit, Hant!” said Sosuke, rubbing the Green Ranger’s hair.

The Go-Ongers said their goodbyes, the Wings still taken aback by the sudden change in attitude their allies had.

As they headed home, the siblings were uncharacteristically silent, a thick tension hanging between them.

“You didn’t have to be so harsh with them, Ani…” said Miu finally. “It’s not like they haven’t saved us, too…”

“That only makes it worse! Think how much greater heroes they could be if only they took it seriously!”

“Ani, they’re our teammates, you can’t talk to them like that!”

“First, we are not teammates, we are two teams who work together. Second, if they want my respect they can earn it!”

Miu wanted to respond but decided to hold her tongue. She always found it difficult to argue with her brother, to say the least when he was in a mood.

“Well, at least they seem pretty dead set on improving themselves-“

“We know them better than that, Miu! Once they get back to the Ginjiro they’ll forget all about training and fall asleep watching cartoons!”

~~~

The next day, Miu was walking through a park, baking under the hot sun. Summer was almost over, but clearly it decided to go out with a bang. It was much hotter than the weatherman had predicted, making her decision to make her trip to the store a walk an ill-advised one.

As she sat on a bench under the shade to cool down, she heard the sound of feet hitting the ground and panting.

Who would be running in this weather…?

She turned to see the Go-Ongers, running in track suits.

“Okay, quick break!” said Sosuke, which made everyone promptly stop, Hant practically collapsing onto the ground.

“Go-Ongers?” said Miu as she walked up to them.

“Oh, (huff) hey Miu…” said Hant as he struggled to rise and greet her.

“You guys are training in this heat?” the Silver Ranger asked.

“We can’t expect the Gaiark to call off an attack because it’s too hot” said Sosuke.

“We must be prepared to fight in any scenario” said Ren.

Miu remembered Hiroto’s adamance that the Go-Ongers would never stick to training, and made a satisfied smile.

“I’m sorry for Hiroto yesterday; he was in a bad mood, but he had no right talking to you like that-“

“It’s all right, Miu” interrupted Sosuke, “both of you have been trying to get us to shape up since we’ve met. It’s only natural he’d be frustrated by our refusal to listen.”

Miu was surprised to hear Sosuke say this; he had been the one most offended by their insults before the Wings had accepted them as capable allies.

“Well, I’ll be very happy to tell Hiroto I ran into you. Good luck, guys, I know you’ll make him eat his words.”

“Thanks Miu” said Sosuke, putting his hand on her shoulder. “With your faith in us, I don’t know how we could fail.”

Sosuke then called rhe break over, and the Go-Ongers all got up and said bye to Miu as they took off again.

Once they were out of sight, Miu released the swoon she had been holding in.

Sosuke is inspired by my faith in him!

She almost skipped home.

~~~

The day after, Hiroto was out running some errands (having gotten a full day of rest the previous day) when he passed a 24 hour gym, and happened to see the Go-Ongers through the glass wall.

His first thought was to get away before they saw him, feeling a meeting between them would be awkward so soon after the other day and his words to them (words that, though he didn’t tell Miu, he had come to regret as soon as he calmed down.)

“Hiroto!” he heard Sosuke call out, putting an end to any thought of avoiding them.

He came into the gym like the Red Ranger had motioned for him to, still taken aback. Miu had told him she ran into them in the park yesterday, saying they were indeed training despite his skepticism that they would follow through their vow. Even with his sister’s sworn testimony, he found it a bit hard to believe.

But now he was seeing it with his own eyes. Gunpei was lifting weights, as Ren did the leg press, while Hant used a rowing machine, all the while Saki climbed a climbing wall.

Sosuke came up to Hiroto.

“Why come here?” asked Hiroto. “Don’t you have exercise equipment in the Ginjiro?”

“This place has more than we can keep in the Ginjiro. It’s not as if it’s as big as your villa, after all.”

“I see…”

Hiroto decided it was time to swallow his pride.

“Sosuke, I want to apologize for the other day. I was suffering from lack of sleep, but that’s no excuse for-“

“You have nothing to apologize for, Hiroto” Sosuke interrupted. “You were only telling us what needed to be said.”

Again, Hiroto was surprised at Sosuke’s attitude. Before the teams started to formally work together, he had bristled at much less harsh words the Wings had made to them.

Sosuke put his hand on Hiroto’s shoulder.

“I promise, we won’t rest until we can be allies you can be proud of…”

Hiroto felt guilt at that statement; still, the fact that they were doing this had him feeling optimistic. Perhaps his words would actually lead to a change for the better….

~~~

Hiroto and Miu came into the local library the next day, Miu wanting to check out some cookbooks; they had the cake she made last night, and Miu concluded she clearly needed better ones than she had.

It was almost no sooner than they got in when they heard a familiar voice.

“‘…Andean condor has a wingspan of 3.3 meters, making it the largest bird of prey in the world…’ Man, that’s so cool…”

“Speedor?” said Miu.

At recognizing the voice, the Sutous followed it to the Children’s Section. There, they saw the holograms of the six engines who served as the Go-Ongers’ partners surronded by children who held books open for the Engines to read aloud to them.

“‘Despite their enormous size, grizzly bears are capable of running up to 30 miles per hour…’” read BearRV to a small boy. “Wow, and they don’t even have wheels…”

The boy turned the page to reveal a two page spread of a full grown male grizzly bear, the sight of which made BearRV instantly turn red.

“Oh - oh my! What a- a strapping spec-specimen… dear me, and this book is for children?”

“BearR? Speedor?” said Miu as she and her brother entered. “What are you guys doing here?”

“Miu! Hiroto!” said Buson.

“The librarian who usually reads to the kids was out sick today, so we volunteered to help out while the Go-Ongers get some books for research” said Carrigator.

“Research?” said Miu.

“Yes, they’ve really been going at it these last few days” said Gunpherd.

“A little too much, if you ask me” said BearRV. “Saki’s been so busy, we haven’t had any time for girl talk.”

Given the Engines’ usual friendliness to him, Hiroto wondered if the Go-Ongers had told their partners the reason for their sudden decision to better themselves.

“Well, we’ll keep an eye for them” said Miu.

As they left, their Wing Triggers suddenly projected the holoforms of Toripter, Jetras, and Jum-BoWhale.

“What’s with you guys?” asked Miu.

“If you please, we would also like to help nurture these children’s growing minds” said Jum-BoWhale.

“Sure” said Hiroto as he and Miu placed their Wing Triggers with the Go-Phones and Shifters.

“Ah, excellent” said the whale Engine. “Gather around, children, and I shall regale you with the inspiring true saga of Humphrey the Whale…”

The Sutous looked around the library until they saw the Go-Ongers, each carrying a stack of books to be checked out.

“Oh, it’s Hiroto and Miu” said Saki.

“Where?” asked Hant, his book stack so high it blocked his eyes.

“We saw your partners, they said you were here for research?” asked Miu.

“Surprised eh, Hiroto?” said Sosuke. “Probably didn’t think I even knew what a library was, huh?”

Hiroto awkwardly smiled.

He turned to focus on Hant, who held the highest tower, and was doing his best to keep balance when he tripped over and spilt them all on the floor. Hiroto and Miu knelt down to help him pick them up, and the Gold Ranger couldn’t help examining the books his allies were checking out.

Anthropogenic Emission Pathways and Bioaccumulative Contaminant Flux: A Systems Analysis of Environmental Degradation; Recursive Neural Networks and Cognitive Emergence: A Meta-Framework for Autonomous Decision-Making Systems; Quantum Decoherence and Multiverse Topologies: A Theoretical Exploration of Non-Linear Reality Structures…

“I must say” said Hiroto, “these seem like heavy reading; I think some of my university professors would have trouble with these…”

“We need to train not just our bodies but our minds as well” said Gunpei.

“We can better fight the Gaiark if we understand them” said Ren.

“I’m really proud of you guys” said Miu. “I know you’re really going to show us something.”

“We won’t betray your faith” said Gunpei. “From now on, you’re going to see a whole new Go-Ongers.”

~~~

The Sutous walked out of the library, having gotten some cookbooks Miu found promising.

As they reached the bottom of the stairs, they looked at each other for a moment.

“‘We know them better than that, Miu!’” said Miu in a mock angry tone.

Hiroto smiled and chuckled.

“This is one case where I’m happy to be proven wrong. They’re really dead set on impressing us, aren’t they?”

Miu’s smile suddenly vanished.

“It’s…kinda strange, isn’t it? That they seem to have no anger about what you said.”

“Yes…that does seem out of character, for Sosuke in particular. But I suppose people do change. In any case, you know what they say: don’t look a gift horse in the mouth.”

A few months ago, Miu would have agreed; hell, she would have just seen it as natural the Go-Ongers recognized the Wings’ superiority and adjusted to meet their approval. Since then, she had grown to respect them as warriors, and like them as people. Now, the idea they’d just accept Hiroto’s tirade as constructive criticism was one she couldn’t help but find…upsetting.

Before she could raise any of her concerns, though, she and HIroto felt a familiar sensation in their heads. The Gaiark were striking again.

“Change Soul Set!” they called out. “Let’s Go On!”

They posed as gold and silver suits materialized over their bodies, as well as helmets right above their heads.

“‘Met On!” they said as they put the helmets on.

They then summoned their Jet Daggers and took off with them in Rocket mode.

~~~

The Wings landed at a quarry, Boombox Banki standing out in the open.

“Nice to see yah again, Wings. I admit, you made me look pretty foolish last go, but this time: advantage Boombox Banki!”

Suddenly, two sets of blasters popped out of the rocks and fired at the Wings. The two easily dodged the blasts, and fired attacks from their Jet Daggers that instantly destroyed them.

“No…no!” yelled Boombox Banki.

The Banki Beast whimpered and went on his knees.

“Please, Wings, have mercy! I was just following orders, I’m not a bad guy! I’m just a patsy, a victim of circumstance! I never got the love every child oughta get!”

As the Wings wondered what to make of this pathetic display, the Banki Beast took out a remote.

“And then, when your guard is down, I spring the REAL trap!”

Boombox Banki pressed a button on the remote, and a pair of crosses rose out of the ground.

Suddenly, the two Wings felt themselves hurled to the crosses, two sets of chains appearing and wrapping around them. They struggled fruitlessly to break free of them.

Boombox Banki laughed at their plight.

“Haha, you dummies fell right into our trap!”

He pressed another button on the remote, and the siblings screamed as electricity surged through their bodies.

Boombox Banki laughed.

“Looks like it’s the end of the Go-On Wings! Hahaha-“

His laughter suddenly ceased when he was hit with several blasts.

Despite their pain, the Wings managed to turn and see the Go-Ongers arrive.

Gunpei immediately leapt at Boombox Banki and engaged him in battle, the Banki Beast struggling to hold his own.

Sosuke turned to the others.

“There must be a power source for the electricity” he said. “Find and destroy it!”

Hant scanned the area, when he noticed a patch of ground that seemed to have been recently disturbed. He took out the bridge axe and used it to unearth what resembled a car battery.

He tossed it into the air. Saki took out her Mantan gun and blasted it, and the electricity surging through the Wings ceased.

Immediately, Ren slashed the chains holding Hiroto while Sosuke did the same for Miu (as always when he saved her, Miu was grateful her helmet prevented anyone from seeing her blushing and smiling).

Boombox Banki managed to land a blow on Gunpei, knocking him away, but he had no time to press his advantage as the other Go-Ongers ganged up on him.

“Come on, Miu” said Hiroto, “we can’t let the Go-Ongers win for us.”

“Right!”

The Wings flew to the battle, taking out their Jet Daggers, with Miu in the lead.

Boombox Banki, seeing them approach, also saw an opportunity. Just as the Silver Ranger was about to strike him, he grabbed Go-On Red and used him as a shield, Sosuke yelling in pain as Miu instead struck him.

“Sosuke! I’m so sorry!” said Miu, horrified at her mistake.

Before he could reply, Boombox Banki, taking advantage of his foes being distracted, fired a sound wave at the two of them.

“Miu!” said Hiroto as he rushed to his sister’s aid.

Boombox Banki aimed and fired at the Wings and Sosuke. Seeing the Go-Ongers distracted by the attack, he saw his opportunity to get out of Dodge.

“You haven’t heard the last of me-AH!”

The Banki Beast took off as the Go-Ongers opened fire at him with their Mantan guns.

Once he was gone, the Wings rushed up to their allies.

“You guys were amazing!” gushed Miu, hugging Saki.

“Oh, it’s nothing that we shouldn’t have been doing since the start” said Hant.

After the Wings assured them they were okay, the Go-Ongers turned to leave.

“Just a moment…” said Hiroto. “Go-Ongers, I realize I have often been critical when I’ve felt your efforts to be less than satisfactory, at times…harsher than I should have been.”

The Go-Ongers looked at him silently, awaiting what he had to say.

“So, I would be remiss if I didn’t also offer praise when you’ve more than earned it. Your conduct today was impeachable. I’m ashamed for having doubted your convictions; I will always be proud to call you comrades.”

The Go-Ongers stood still for a moment. Then, Sosuke approached the Gold Ranger.

“Hiroto…coming from you, those words really mean a lot; I can imagine no better reward for our efforts. Thank you.”

He extended his hand, and Hiroto took and shook it.

The Wings turned and walked away.

“…I only wish we could say the same for you.”

The siblings turned in shock at what they heard.

“What!?” said Miu. “What are you saying!?”

“You blundered in like idiots. You should know by now that the Gaiark aren’t as dumb as they appear; you should have assumed something so easily dealt with was just a decoy” said Ren in a cold, unsympathetic tone.

“And then, not satisfied with that, you leap in even though we clearly had the situation well in hand and only succeeded in getting in our way. We would have been able to finish him if you two hadn’t been so desperate to soothe your wounded pride” said Gunpei.

“And you, Miu” said Saki, “that was a rank amateur mistake, one that caused your brother harm. Your job is supporting Hiroto. How is he supposed to focus on the Gaiark when he has to look out for his little sister?”

Behind her helmet, Miu’s jaw dropped.

“Arrogance” said Sosuke. “That’s always been your Achilles heel, your utter refusal to believe anyone could possibly be smart enough to get one over you.”

Miu was beside herself at what the Go-Ongers were saying.

“I can’t believe this! Where do you guys get off acting like we’re a couple of amateurs-?”

“It’s all right, Miu” said Hiroto, putting his hand on his sister’s shoulder to calm her.

“What are you talking about, ‘all right’?! They-“

“Your criticism is noted” said Hiroto, ignoring his sister. “We’ll be sure to train more so as to do better next time.”

“See that you do” said Ren.

“Yeah, we didn’t do all this training just to carry you two” said Hant, he and his teammates breaking into laughter at the remark (laughter, Hiroto thought, that sounded much different from their usual - meaner.)

“‘Carry us’?!” said an angry Miu.

“Let’s go, Miu” said Hiroto, motioning his sister to turn around as they started off for home, the Go-Ongers leaving as well.

“I can’t believe the nerve of them! Like we haven’t saved them numerous times!”

“Miu, we’ve certainly given the Go-Ongers plenty of criticism, we can’t be outraged when they do the same to us.”

“Well they didn’t have to be so rude about it!”

“If they act more like they did today then I’ll gladly accept some rude remarks. And they were right, we did perform poorly today. We should step up training; see, this is how it should be between us, encouraging eachother to get stronger!”

‘Encourage’? thought Miu. Hiroto had torn apart the Go-Ongers, and now they had done the same to them. She frowned at the thought of this being how things would be going forward, where anyone who made a mistake would instantly get their noses rubbed in it by the others.

“I thought Instructor BoWhale said that it was our strength that we have different styles, that we complement each other.”

“I wouldn’t worry about that, Miu. This is still the Go-Ongers we’re talking about; how much do you think they’ll really change?”

Chapter Text

Hiroto silently read the paper as he ate a cantaloupe for breakfast.

He yawned; he had a hard time sleeping last night. It must have been embarrassment at his and Miu’s showing yesterday - he was no believer in karma, but he supposed he deserved the shame he felt after how he tore into the Go-Ongers the other day.

Miu walked in, and he could tell by the look on her face that sleep had not abetted her anger at what the Go-Ongers told them.

“Stupid Go-Ongers, acting all cocky just because for once they managed like we do 99 times out of 100!” she began with no prompt. “Well, they better enjoy it while they can, the next time we rescue them, you go all out in telling them off, I will back you up all the way!”

Listening to his sister rant, Hiroto smiled, upsetting Miu even further.

“What’s so funny?”

“It occurred to me that perhaps the real reason you’re upset is that they’re not your precious strays anymore. They can now stand up for themselves, and no longer need you.”

As he expected, this made Miu only madder. Before she could say anything, though, they heard footsteps.

The two leapt to their feet, prepared to meet the intruders. Maybe it was just some dumb crooks who felt the morning was the best time to burgle a home, but they had long considered the possibility that the Gaiark might decide to attack them at home.

They both grabbed their Wing Triggers as they ventured out into their living room, prepared for anything. They both let out a sigh of relief when they saw it was just the Go-Ongers.

“Guys? What are you doing here?” asked Miu.

“Well, you guys always show up at our place unannounced, we figure we should return the favor” said Sosuke.

Hiroto and Miu looked at each other, neither sure what to make of this.

“I guess that’s fair…” said Miu.

Normally she’d be happy to see Sosuke suddenly show up, but all of them gave her a different vibe from usual, as they took in the Sutou villa.

“Man, this is a big place” said Gunpei. “Funny, isn’t it - us five have to squeeze together in the Ginjiro, while you two get this huge mansion all to yourselves…”

Hiroto and Miu again looked at each other.

“Hey, we saw you have a volley ball court out back” said Sosuke. “What say we play a round or two?”

Hiroto felt, on top of suddenly showing up uninvited at their home (not to mention Gunpei’s passive aggressive comment on their different homes), this request was highly presumptive, but it then occurred to him perhaps a game could help improve the recently strained relations between the Go-On teams.

“Sure, why not?”

The guys headed out, leaving Miu and Saki alone.

“So Saki, I guess we’ll have some girl time while the boys goof off” said Miu.

Saki smiled in reply; hardly a rare occurrence, but this was different from the one she had come to know - there was something about it, like she knew something Miu didn’t…

Hiroto and the male Go-Ongers took their positions in the court, him being paired with Hant against the other three.

Sosuke spiked, and the ball hit Hiroto in the head.

“Ooooh!” said the Go-Ongers, sounding more impressed than worried for him.

Sosuke patted him on the back.

“You okay, buddy? Sorry, but you know us, we can’t take our shoes off without setting the house on fire” said Sosuke, his smile suggesting anything but genuine regret.

“It’s…fine” said Hiroto.

In truth, he of course suspected that it had been deliberate; but that seemed so out of character for Sosuke, who could certainly be boorish but never a bully, and he didn’t want to inflame things by potentially needlessly accusing him.

“So, Saki, I did some redecorating recently; I moved the credenza to the dining room, and I got some new drapes, they’re velvet, and have an Arabian Nights theme I just love…”

Miu realized the Yellow Ranger was not paying attention, instead playing with a strand of her hair as she stared at the table.

“Saki?”

At that, the Yellow Ranger snapped back to Miu, flashing an apologetic smile.

“Sorry. It’s just we’ve been training so much, I guess I don’t have the energy to act like you’re an interesting person…”

For a moment, Miu was too stunned to speak. Then, she (nervously) laughed.

“Saki, I…I never knew you were one for jokes…”

Outside, the game continued.

Hiroto took off his jacket, the game having warmed his body considerably. The Go-Ongers had proven quite adept opponents; it’d been sometime since he had to put up this much of a fight in an (ostensibly) friendly game.

The next round was beginning. Gunpei spiked, and before Hiroto knew it again struck his head.

“Damn, that looked like it hurt” said Sosuke, who, as with the rest, seemed to be doing his best to hide a smile.

Miu frowned as she looked at Saki rest her head on the table, her half open eyes going around the room.

“Saki…I promise I’m not going to call the police or anything, but, I’m just curious…are you…on something…?”

Saki looked at Miu as if she had just asked the stupidest question of all time.

“Only on self confidence. I see why you’d be confused though. This is the first time we’ve had any since you and your brother arrived…”

Miu again froze.

“Yes, things were…unpleasant between us at the start, weren’t they?” she said finally.

Hiroto had long stopped feeling like this was a game. No, it was more an endurance test, his nerves frying in stress.

Ren spiked this time, and despite the Gold Ranger being on guard the ball again found him as the target.

“Again, Hiroto?” said Sosuke. “Come on, you gotta get your head in the game!”

“I don’t know, his head being in it seems to be the problem” said Gunpei, and the Go-Ongers laughed again.

Hiroto looked at them in disbelief. By now it was clear they were doing this intentionally. He is first thought was to call them out, but he stopped before opening his mouth; his instincts told him the best thing to do here was avoid escalation…

Miu was struggling to think of how to get Saki to engage in some sort of conversation. At this point, it was no longer simply about being a good hostess, but to assure herself the younger girl was all right.

“So…” she began, “Ani and I still feel a little foolish about last night…”

That at least seemed to get Saki’s attention, the Go-Onger turning to face her with a bright smile.

“I have to admit to feeling a little crossed at what you said last night afterwards, but Ani pointed out you guys are only trying to get it so we get better. I mean, a year ago none of us were doing this, so we all have space to grow-“

“What did you guys do, exactly?” interrupted Saki.

“…excuse me?”

“I mean, all of us had jobs before this; we have plans for what we want to do after the Gaiark are defeated for good. Aside from school, have you guys done anything aside from lounging around here?”

Miu was silent. Saki giggled.

“Wow, you don’t really have anything else going on in your lives, do you…? I guess that’s why you were so eager to fight the Gaiark; must feel nice to actually be making a difference for once…”

Miu was silent, not sure how to respond to all that. She could at times find Saki’s cheeriness a bit much, but she’d definitely take it over whatever this was.

Hiroto stared at the opposing team, eyes focused on all three of them, determined not to let them make a fool of him again. Then, a ball from the side hit him directly in the face, making him fall to the ground.

“Oops” said Hant, not even trying to hide his smile.

When he opened his eyes, he saw the four Go-Ongers looking down on him with wide smiles.

“Gee, Hiroto, it just isn’t your day, is it?” said Sosuke as he offered him a hand up.

Miu came out of the kitchen with a cup of tea and a lemon scone.

“Can I get you anything?” she asked Saki.

“No, I’m good” said the Yellow Ranger as she took out what looked like a brownie made out of dirt. Miu felt a little grossed out as she began to eat it.

“What…what is that?” she asked.

“Ren came up with them. They’re made from raw nutrients for maximum nutritional value.”

“Oh…. So, you guys aren’t eating eggs anymore?”

“Eggs are high in cholesterol and saturated fat, and increase the risk of heart disease. You want to try it?”

“Thanks, but, uh, I think I’ll pass…”

“You sure?” said Saki bluntly. “You seem like you could stand to eat a little healthier…”

“What do you mean?”

“Those short shorts have been looking kinda tight lately; wouldn’t want to split them in front of Sosuke, would you?”

“SAKI!” shouted Miu, not out of being offended but shock that Saki of all people would say such a thing.

Saki just smiled, looking the happiest Miu had seen her since she arrived.

Before Miu could say anything more, the guys came back, and she was horrified to see Hiroto with a black eye, rushing over in concern.

“Ani! What happened?”

“Oh, he didn’t have much luck out there. Don’t worry, he’ll be all right; you’re a tough guy, right Hiroto?” said Sosuke, grabbing his cheek as if he were a child.

Hiroto didn’t respond to him as he broke away, his sister taking hold of him.

“Thanks you two, this was really fun!” said Hant.

“Yes, we’ll be sure to come by again soon. Take care” said Ren.

The Go-Ongers turned to leave.

“See yah, Miu” said Saki, waving goodbye as she walked away without facing them.

A short time later, the siblings were in the kitchen, Miu holding an ice pack to her brother’s face.

She suddenly sighed.

“Ani…what the hell just happened?”

“I told you, I took some hits to the face-“

“You know God damn well that’s not what I’m taking about!” shouted Miu. “The Go-Ongers…Ani, I think they came here to intimidate us.”

Despite everything, Hiroto couldn’t help but laugh at the idea.

“Miu, these are the Go-Ongers we’re talking about.”

“Are they? Ani, I talked to Saki, she was like a completely different person! She was a rude guest, openly disdainful of me, and told viscous lies!” she said as she again snuck a glance at her backside. “And judging by your face I don’t think Sosuke and the others were themselves either!”

Hiroto took a moment to think.

“They’ve been training more - that would boost their testosterone, making them act more aggressive. If so, we just need to give some time to adjust and they’ll go back to being themselves.”

Miu looked at her brother in disbelief.

“Ani, I know you’re crazy about them being super competent now, but what if this is something serious?”

“What are you suggesting?”

“That gas…we assumed it was lethal, meant to kill. What if we were wrong? What if it did something to them? Changed them somehow?”

Hiroto sighed.

“To be honest, that possibility has occurred to me as well. But you saw how they were yesterday. Why would the Gaiark want to make them even tougher opponents?”

“I don’t know, Ani! But I’m worried about them…”

~~~

Later that day, Hiroto was trying to read a new book on Kierkegaard, unsuccessfully banishing thoughts and concerns about the Go-Ongers, when the phone rang.

“Hiroto. It’s Sosuke.”

At that he turned to face his sister, tending to some of her flowers, as he put the phone on speaker.

“Hello Sosuke.”

At that, Miu turned to him with apprehension.

”Listen, we feel just awful about what happened today. I mean, God, we show up uninvited and you were nice enough to let us into your own home and we play rough, act like a bunch of jackasses, and I don’t know what Saki said to Miu but she’s in tears about it. I guess we’ve been training too hard, but we really want to make it up to you guys, so we figured we’d invite you to a cookout we’re having tonight. Whadda say?”

Hiroto thought for a moment, as Miu pensively watched him.

“Sure. We’ll be there.”

“Great!” said Sosuke, who told him where the Ginjiro would be.

Once the call was over, Miu looked at her brother with incredulity.

“Ani, after all that happened today, you want us to go to their place?”

“That’s just it. This will be a good opportunity to see how they are. If they’re their usual selves, we can rest easy. If not…”

The siblings let that scenario go unspoken.

~~~

Night had fallen as the Sutous arrived at the Ginjiro, located in the woods just outside of Tokyo.

The Go-Ongers were waiting for them, all wearing sad, hound dog expressions on their faces, like kids who realized they disappointed their mom.

Sosuke slowly approached the siblings, seemingly straining to look them in the face. Once he got close enough, he bowed, the rest of the team following suit.

“We thank you for coming, after how shamefully we acted towards you today.”

The Sutous were a little uncertain how to react: they wanted to improve the relations between the two teams, but they didn’t want to just roll over for them.

“We thank you for inviting us” said Hiroto, feeling that made a good middle ground. “I hope we can ease the tensions between our teams. We can’t afford any bad blood if we’re to beat the Gaiark.”

“My thoughts exactly, Hiroto” said Sosuke. “But, let’s forget the past and the Gaiark for how. Tonight is about camp fires, scary stories, roasting weenies, and having fun.”

“Maybe we can give you some pointers on volleyball, too” said Hant.

“Hant!” yelled Saki, hit out him in the shoulder. “I can’t believe it! The whole point is to make it up for you guys being such jerks to Hiroto and you say that up!

Saki’s anger was such that a frightened Hant leapt on Gunpei’s back.

“Get off! My doctor said this isn’t good for my back!” said the Black Ranger.

“Forward to safety, noble steed!” shouted Hant as he pointed ahead, their teammates laughing.

The Sutous smiled at each other, both relieved that it seemed their comrades were back to their normal selves.

Later on, Miu was utterly taken as Sosuke showed her how to roast a weenie on a stick.

“Ani, look, I’m cooking a weenie! Oh, I feel like I’m Remy!”

The night had gone better than the Sutous’ best hopes. Even when Hant telling a creepy tale about a remote inn where children were turned into chickens to be eaten ended up having a silver lining as Sosuke noticed her fear and held her hand (her brother having been too frozen in terror himself.)

At that moment, the Go-Ongers’ visit to their home seemed like a million years ago. Of course Hiroto was right like he always was: the Go-Ongers had just needed to rest, and were now again the pleasant band she had come to know. She had never felt so relieved at feeling so foolish before…

“You know, I always wanted to go camping, but our parents couldn’t bear the thought of us being out in the wilderness without even a dryer to get our hair done. Ani and I had to settle for sleeping in a tent outside the house…”

“Well, why not do it right now?” asked Sosuke.

“R-really?”

“Yeah, you guys could just spend the night out here in the wilderness” said Hant.

“Oh, can we, Ani?” Miu eagerly asked her brother, who grinned.

“You know I can’t say no to you when you have that look on your face.”

“We have sleeping bags in the Ginjiro” said Saki. “I’ll get them once I’m done cleaning up.”

“Oh don’t worry Saki, I can get them myself” said Miu as she went into the Go-Ongers’ mobile base.

Hiroto was also feeling relieved that a potential crisis had not materialized (particularly as he felt at least partially responsible for it.)

He saw Sosuke standing and staring intently at the fire by himself.

“You thinking about something?” he asked the Red Ranger, having walked up to stand beside him.

“Yes…since the start, both of our teams have followed a pattern: we wait for the GaiRk to attack, beat them, and then we go back to waiting. Why do we let our foes set the terms of this war?”

“It’s frustrating, I know. But what do you suggest we do instead?”

“Launch an all out effort to locate Hellgailles Palace. Once we find it, we attack it with everything we got and wipe it from the face of the Earth.”

Hiroto was silent for a moment before replying.

“I’ve thought of that as well. But the fact is it’s far too risky. Think of the defenses they would have; likely we’d be killed, and then there’d be no one left to defend against them. No, we should continue our current strategy. I’m not happy about it, either, but for now at least it’s our best play.”

Sosuke just smiled at that.

“Well, I guess if you can’t figure out how, then what hope do I have?”

“Don’t sell yourself short. You’ve impressed me many times these past few months; you may lack my schooling, but your instincts are second to none. I wouldn’t at all be surprised if you came up with a solution.”

Sosuke seemed taken aback by Hiroto’s response. He lowered his head, just staring at the ground, silent.

God, Hiroto thought, are things really so bad between us that he’s shocked by me giving him a compliment…?

“This has been nice” he finally said. “Us being equals, I mean…” he said.

Hiroto nodded.

“It…it should have been like this from the start” he said.

Sosuke continued looking downwards, a single tear rolling down from his eye.

“I…I have to go. I don’t want to be here.”

“Sosuke, wait-“

But the Red Ranger ignored Hiroto and vanished into the trees.

~~~

In the Ginjiro, Miu was still looking for the sleeping bags. She had figured on asking BOMPER where they were, but to her surprise the Go-Ongers robotic assistant/friend was nowhere to be found…

She was just about to go back out and ask where they were when she saw Ren’s notepad laying on a table.

Unable to help her curiosity, she flipped through it. Most of it was what she expected: sketches and information of the recent Banki Beasts they had encountered, ideas for new uses of their weapons, etc.

Then she came upon something different: what seemed to be designs for a new robot. It resembled Engine-O in the basics, but much bulkier and more militaristic. She was trying to figure it out when she felt a hand on her shoulder.

Miu spun around to see Ren glaring down at her.

“Oh, hey Ren I was-“

“Looking through my notepad?”

“Yeah, I just saw it lying about and was curious-“

“Clearly. Tell me, the next time we’re at your home, are we allowed to go through your room and look through your things just to satisfy our curiosity? Or do you believe privacy is reserved for the upper class?”

Miu put the notebook back.

“You’re right; please forgive me for being nosy.”

“Oh, don’t worry” said a new voice.

She turned to see that Gunpei and Hant had just entered.

“We think well of you, Miu” said Gunpei. “Your brother is, well, let’s face it, a real piece of work, but we’ve always thought well of you, from the first day we met you.”

“Well, that night at least” said Hant, which made all three of them laugh.

“And many nights since” said Ren, and they all laughed again.

“I actually thought well of you just before you got here” said Hant, prompting another round of laughter.

Wait, are they using “think well of me” as a euphemism for…no, they couldn’t be. They wouldn’t…

“How couldn’t we, after all; you were so kind to us when we first met, taking pity on us hapless bunch. It’s just in your nature; Hiroto told us you have a fondness for strays, right?”

“Yes, that’s right” said Miu, smiling although she sensed an undercurrent of aggression in what they were saying.

“How adorable” said Hant.

“Oh, I can just imagine it: Mr. and Mrs. Sutou waiting outside for little Miu to get home from school, only to sigh when they see her carrying another poor kitty cat” said Ren.

Gunpei came up behind Miu, glaring down at her. The Silver Ranger was suddenly aware in a way she never had been before of how bigger and more muscular he was than her.

“That’s what we are to you, right? Dumb, pathetic animals you take pity on.”

Miu frowned.

“That’s just Hiroto’s teasing. I promise, I don’t think of people as animals.”

“Well, not Sosuke, of course” said Hant.

Miu jumped a bit at that. She figured it possible the others had recognized her crush on the Go-Onger leader, but she didn’t think they would bring it up to her so casually.

“Of course” said Gunpei. “All women respect a leader.”

“And one like Sosuke” said Ren, “a dirtbag from the lower classes, one sure to piss off her parents and, of course, her brother…”

Miu glared at them.

“Frankly, I don’t see how any feelings I may or may not have for Sosuke is any of your business.”

“Oh no?” said Ren. “It’ll be us who have to comfort him when you grow bored with him, and go marry a fellow trust fund kid like a good little princess.”

Miu’s jaw dropped at that.

“I wouldn’t do that to So- I mean, I don’t have - I am not having this discussion, all right!?”

The Go-Ongers all smirked at seeing the Silver Ranger flustered.

“Oh, don’t be that way, Miu” said Hant. “We’re just looking out for our friend - I’m sure you’d feel the same about anyone interested in Hiroto, right?”

“Tell you what Miu” said Gunpei, “if you want, maybe we can try and set you two up.”

Miu remained silent, looking at them with suspicion.

“We’d be delighted to” said Ren, “provided you prove your good intentions to us.”

“And how would I do that?” asked Miu acidly.

“Well, you wouldn’t recommend a car you hadn’t driven yourself, would you?” said Gunpei.

“…what?”

“Come on, Miu, it won’t be so bad” said Hant. “We’re not ugly, are we?”

“And I’m sure you must have participated in this sort of thing at school” said Ren.

Miu was about to ask them to just say what they meant when it suddenly clicked.

“What…what the hell is wrong with you all!?”

“Ooooh” went the guys, still smiling.

“She’s so cute when she’s upset, isn’t she?” said Gunpei.

“Doesn’t like she’s into it, does it?” said Hant.

“Well, the hard way will probably be more fun anyway” said Ren.

“‘Hard…hard way’?”

The guys looked at each other knowingly.

“Did you know, Miu, that the Ginjiro is soundproof?” asked Ren. “You could scream in here as loud as you could and your brother out there would never hear you.”

Why was he telling her that, Miu instantly wondered.

“Tell me, Miu…” Gunpei asked. “Did any of your strays ever bite you?”

At that, Ren and Hant began to converge on her. The looks on their faces…what they had said…it was almost like they were going to - going to…

She told herself she was being ridiculous- she knew these guys, trusted them with her life, they wouldn’t-

And she saw the expressions on them and she realized - she didn’t know any of these people. Oh, their faces were familiar but behind them were complete strangers - strangers capable of anything.

Suddenly, Miu felt scared. She didn’t want to be here alone with them for one instant longer; she wanted to be with her brother.

She moved to the door when Gunpei stepped in front of it, blocking her from leaving.

“Gunpei, I want to leave.”

Gunpei looked at her with amusement, not moving an inch.

“I said I want to leave.”

Hant and Ren moved closer to her, leering smiles on their faces.

“Gunpei, I want to leave right now!” she shouted with panic in her voice.

Looming over her, Gunpei raised his hands…

…just before he moved out of the way, bowing and motioning to the door as if presenting her a carriage.

Miu breathed heavily as her heart rate slowed back down. The Go-Ongers seemed puzzled by her expression.

“Wait, Miu, why do you look so scared?” asked Hant. “Wait…you didn’t think…”

The three men broke into laughter, as if it were all some sitcom misunderstanding.

“Come now, Miu” said Ren, “what sort of example would we be setting for the children?”

Miu ran out the door as they laughed more, her shaking hand gripping her Wing Trigger all the while.

~~~

Hiroto was sitting by the fire when he heard someone walking up behind him. He turned to see if Sosuke had come back, but it was just Saki, smiling brightly.

“Hey” he said to the Yellow Ranger.

“Hey, Hiroto…” she replied, in a tone he had never heard her use before.

She knelt down besides him.

“I heard what the others did to you while you were playing volley ball. I was so upset…they all have complexes about you, Sosuke especially - he thought he was king shit of fuck mountain before you came along…”

Hiroto frowned.

“He shouldn’t feel that way. It took me a while to realize, but he’s quite capable in his own way…”

“Oh, that’s so nice of you to say. I’m so glad we’re getting along now…Oh course, I’ve always appreciated you…”

She leaned over and rested her head on his shoulder, making him raise his eyes.

“You’ve always been so competent, so courageous, so…commanding…”

“I’m glad to have impressed you” said Hiroto in a tone he hoped came off as respectful but with no undertones suggesting anything else.

“Well, when you live with boys, it’s hard not to be impressed when you meet a man…”

Saki got up and walked around. Hiroto then heard unzipping.

Turning to see what it was, Hiroto gasped at what he saw: Saki standing in front of him completely naked.

“Saki, what in God’s name are you doing!?”

Saki smiled as she leaned down to Hiroto, putting her arms around him as she sat on his lap. Hiroto froze up, unable to believe what was happening.

“What’s wrong, Hiroto? Don’t you like girls?”

She leaned in and whispered into his ear.

“Or maybe you only like this when it’s Miu?”

Hiroto instantly shot up in shock, in the process knocking Saki on the ground face first. Realizing what he had done, he reached out for her.

“Saki? Are you oka-“

Saki suddenly started laughing as she rose and turned around, now bleeding from her upper lip.

“Come on, just give me a chance. I promise I can make you feel like the shiniest bro in the world, Ani!”

Hiroto desperately searched her face for any sign of the sweet young girl he had come to know these last few months but could find only some cackling demoness.

Miu then rushed out of the Ginjiro.

“Ani, I-“

She froze at the sight of before her, her jaw open.

The two siblings then marched away, neither needing to tell the other they needed to leave now.

The male Go-Ongers exited the Ginjiro just as Sosuke returned, a shit eating grin on his face.

“Sorry guys, looks like we’re still not cool enough for the Wings to hang out with. That’s all right, though, you know us: we never give up!”

The siblings quickened their pace, the Go-Ongers’ ugly laughter echoing in their ears.

“Guess they still need time to adjust to training, huh?” said Miu bitterly.

“I’m sorry Miu, I must have been in denial. God, what a horrid situation this is… we’ll tell Jum-BoWhale, I’m certain together we’ll find a way to get them back to normal-“

“And how long will that take?”

“Miu, we must be-“

“Ani, if this was the gas they haven’t been exposed to it for even a full week and they’re like this. What are they going to be like a week from now? A month? For God’s sake, what are they going to be like tomorrow?

“Ani, I’m not just worried about them anymore.”

~~~

The next morning, the Wings were informing their partners on what occurred last night. They were just as distraught, with Jum-BoWhale seeming especially downcast.

“How horrible. To think the Go-Ongers capable of such behavior whaaaale.”

“That’s why we have to find how to get them to normal” said Miu.

“Rest assured I will devote all my energies to doing so. However, at the moment, I’m afraid I don’t know where to begin. Given the timing, it seems likely that gas was responsible, but we know nothing about it, nor at present anyway of finding out more.”

Hiroto slammed his fist on the table.

“Damn it! I should have assumed exposure to it could have done something to them, kept some for analysis…at the very least I should told them to have BOMPER examine them and make sure they were all right. To think I had the arrogance to chastise the Go-Ongers when I was the one acting like an amateur…”

“Don’t beat yourself up, bro” said Toripter. “That ain’t going to help the Go-Ongers.”

“Yes, we need to remain levelheaded and come up with a plan” said Jetras.

“Yes, both of you are right” said Hiroto, sitting down to calm himself and allow him to gather his thoughts.

“I think our best course of action is to hold an intervention. We confront them, convince them something’s happened to them and they’re now potentially dangerous to the public. We get them to have BOMPER scan them, so as to confirm they’re not in the right minds, and to hand over their Change Souls until we can find a way to get them back to normal.”

“But bro” said Toripter, “that means we’ll have to handle the Gaiark alone until we find a way to cure them.”

“It’s a big risk, I know, but with them as they are now, letting them keep them is a bigger one.”

“You act as it’s so simple. Ani, how are we going to convince them to do that? We don’t seem to be their favorite people lately.”

“It’s not going to be easy, I know. But we must assume the Go-Ongers we know are still in there, and that we can reach them by telling them their condition places others in danger. Besides, it won’t be us alone. Their partners and BOMPER can’t have failed to noticed how they’ve changed; I’m certain they’ll back us up.”

Miu wanted to believe that.

Suddenly, both felt a flash in their minds.

Terrific, thought Hiroto. Now they had to deal with the Gaiark on top of everything else.

“Come on, Miu.”

“Ani…”

Hiroto saw his sister looking scared.

“…the Go-Ongers will be there, too…”

Hiroto paused for a moment.

“If nothing else, the Gaiark are still our common foe. Actually, this could be good: they might be more willing to listen to us if we fight together…”

~~~

The Wings landed in a lush valley. Despite the beauty, the two were instantly overcome with an uneasiness, a sense that things were wrong. Hiroto actually felt relief when he saw a troop of Ugutz soldiers running at them. That was at least something he understood, could deal with.

Hiroto instantly went into his battle posture, but Miu remained still.

“Miu! What are you doing?!”

She didn’t answer, and the Ugutz soldiers ran right past them, as if they hadn’t even noticed them.

“What…?” said Hiroto.

Miu looked at him with confusion.

“Ani, couldn’t you see…? They were terrified.”

The idea seemed ludicrous, but as he looked at them as they ran, he realized this wasn’t the usual tactical retreat…they were fleeing for their lives…

They quickly realize why. Bodies of Ugutz soldiers littered the ground. Not just defeated, or even killed; they had been butchered, limbs hacked off.

“Ani…”

He walked a little further ahead to see what his sister had found, even though he found himself dreading whatever it was.

He was right to. Five crosses, of the same type Boombox Banki had trapped them on the other day. Chained to four of these crosses, however, were Ugutz Soldiers, all now burnt to a crisp. On the fifth, the unlucky soldier had spikes driven through his wrists to lock him there.

“What in God’s name….?” muttered Hiroto.

Miu suddenly yelped as she felt something touch her leg.

“Help!”

It was Boombox Banki…what was left of him. His legs and right arm had been chopped off, and his torso was heavily damaged, exposing wires and circuitry. Furthermore, it smelt like he had been urinated on.

“Please…too much pain…kill me!”

The Wings formed the Wing Boosters and put the Banki Beast out of his misery. Thinking of everything they’d seen since arriving, Miu turned to her brother.

“Ani, did…did the Go-Ongers do this?”

Hiroto didn’t answer. The Go-Ongers he’d come to know, who’d instantly leapt into battle to defend even a foe like Hiramechimedes, would never do this. The people they’ve been seeing these past few days, on the other hand…

The eerie silence was shattered by a scream.

The Wings ran to its source; when they got there, they both gasped at what they saw.

There was Kitaneidas, chained to a tree. He was damaged, his eye socket hanging out, and one of his hands lay on the ground below him. Directly facing him were the Go-Ongers, their helmets off, lounging on some rocks as if watching friends playing a soccer game.

In between them was Saki, wearing a blindfold and holding her Mantan gun in rod mode, stomping around and periodically stabbing the air.

“What’s wrong with you!?” screamed the Pollution Minister. “I don’t understand, you’ve always seemed like such amiable types, so far as meddlesome do gooders go…”

Saki thrust it forward, stabbing the Gaiark right in the chest, sending sparks flying off. The Pollution Minister scream in pain as her teammates cheered her.

“All right, Hant’s turn!” said Sosuke.

They took the blindfold off Saki and put it on the Green Ranger, spun him around. Like Saki before, he stomped around thrusting his Mantan gun.

“Green, you fancy Kegalesia, right? I promise to put in a good word for you if you let me go!”

Hant leapt at the source of the voice, only for the Wings to land in between them, knocking him down.

“Go-On Wings! Oh thank the Maker you’re here, the Go-Ongers, they’ve gone insane!”

“Hey, Miu and Hiroto!” said Sosuke, who got up and approached the Wings. “You guys wanna play? It was Hant’s turn, but hey, why should you two have to wait like us commoners?”

The Wings looked at the scene before them.

“Sosuke, what’s…what’s going on?” asked Miu.

“Oh, the Gaiark set a little trap for us. Didn’t work like you thought it would, did it, Kitchy?!”

“No, no it didn’t, did it haha” said the Pollution Minister in forced cheer, apparently hoping such an attitude might convince them to let him go.

“Oh hey, got something for yah” Sosuke said as he tossed something to them.

Hiroto caught it, and saw it was a canister of Bikkurium, though with chunks of metal and circuitry attached.

“Remember when we first met, you took it out of Rock Blast Banki. We all thought that was really cool and wanted to try it ourselves. Course, we’re not as experienced at it as you, so we really had to hack into the son of a bitch, but eventually we found it.”

Hiroto looked down at it, remembering Boombox Banki writhing in agony. He dropped it in disgust.

“Look, you want to destroy him, Miu and I will help you right now-“

“Uh, I don’t like that idea, I was thinking you let just let me go, y’know?”

“-but this is sick. What you’re doing is torture, just pointless sadism!”

“Oh, there’s a point” said Hant.

“We’re sending the Gaiark a message” said Ren, “that we will no longer be treating them with kids gloves.”

“And that message is received loud and clear!” said Kitaneidas. “I’ll be sure to pass it on to everyone else if you just let me go-“

“Shut up!” snapped Sosuke, who pulled out his Mantan gun and aimed it at the Pollution Minister. “I’m sick of listening to your sniveling!”

Hiroto put his hand on the Red Ranger’s arm to lower it-

“DON’T YOU FUCKING TOUCH ME!” screamed Sosuke, making both Hiroto and Miu jump back.

Hiroto sighed. He had hoped for a better opportunity, but clearly there wasn’t any time to spare on this.

“Listen, something’s happened to you guys, you’re not acting like yourselves. You need to get help, immediately.”

“Really? And what kind of ‘help’ would that be?” asked Sosuke.

“Go back to the Ginjiro, got yourselves examined by BOMPER. Once that’s done, he and Jum-BoWhale will not cease until they find a cure.”

Hiroto hesitated, he and his sister looking at each other, before he continued.

“We also think that, for everyone’s safety, you should turn over your Change Souls to us until we find out how to get you all back to normal.”

There was a silence, as the Wings waited to see how the Go-Ongers responded.

Finally, Sosuke stepped towards them.

“God, you really are an arrogant prick, aren’t you?”

At that, the Wings felt pits opening in their stomachs.

“I know you both think we’re a bunch of morons, but did you honestly think we forgot how much you both wanted us out of the picture? How pleased you two must have been when you thought of this, a way to finally get the glory of fighting the Gaiark on your own, and disguising it as concern for us!”

“This isn’t something we want!” said Hiroto. “Miu and I have long recognized we were foolish to think we could defeat the Gaiark on our own, and we know we’ll be at a huge disadvantage without you-“

“I didn’t hear that!” shouted Kitaneidas. “I wasn’t paying attention, so if that was some tactically valuable information you don’t have to take that into consideration when deciding whether to let me go or not!”

“-but your state of minds right now make it too dangerous for you to wield your powers. Please, for the sake of those we protect, hand them over.”

“Peddle your bullshit somewhere else!” said Sosuke. “Both of us know if we hand over our Change Souls then we’ll never see them again!”

“If you won’t listen to us then ask your partners; they’ll say the same thing!”

To his horror, the Go-Ongers smirked.

“As a matter of fact, they did” said Sosuke. “Fortunately, we don’t have to listen to them anymore.”

Hiroto felt as if the ground had vanished beneath his feet.

“What? What - what are you saying?”

The Go-Ongers smirked, evidently enjoying the Wings’ confusion.

“Ren whipped up a device locking them into stasis” said Sosuke.

“They are now merely our tools, whom we can use without any irritating backtalk” said Ren.

“How…how could you?” asked Miu.

“It was easy, once they revealed their true loyalties” said Hant.

“Of course the Engines would support you!” said Gunpei. “You’re their favorites after all, the ones they whisked away to their world to train; they only meant us to be placeholders, to be disposed of once you were ready!”

“What are you talking about, your partners would never betray you like that!” said Miu. “They love you!”

“We don’t need the Engines’ love, only their power!” snarled Hant.

The shock of what he’d just been told hit Hiroto as hard as any blow he received in battle. He and Miu had always been struck by the intensity of the bounds between them and their Engine partners, which seemed to go much deeper than the ones they had with Toripter and Jetras (perhaps, they speculated, since they lacked any deep ties to another such as the siblings had in each other). To hear them admit to doing this to them so readily…good God, how could they have changed so much so fast?

“Listen to yourselves!” pleaded Miu. “You’re talking like the Gaiark! Please, let us help you!”

“You know what I think’s going on?” said an amused Saki. “I think a couple of rich kids who’ve spent their whole lives being told by mommy and daddy that they’re the best at everything they do are aghast that a bunch of commoners had the audacity to get better at something than them, and they want to put a stop to it immediately.”

“Yes, they only wanted us to improve so as to better serve as their lackeys” said Ren. “We were never supposed to outshine them.”

“And look now! They’d rather join Gaiark than accept us as their superiors!” shouted Gunpei, a huge vein in his forehead throbbing, his eyeballs bulging, so ridden with anger was he. “That’s how much they despise us!”

Hiroto felt unable to speak. He had never been in a situation this Sisyphian. The Go-Ongers had no trust in him and Miu; anything the Wings told them was a lie, a trick, a veiled insult.

Sosuke looked at the Wings with disdain.

“You know, I think the partnership between our teams has run its course. We’ll fight the Gaiark our way, you can fight it the Engines’ way, and we’ll see who beats them first. Now, leave.”

At that, Hiroto took a step forward.

“Neither one of us is leaving until you all start listening to reason!”

At that, the Go-Ongers looked at each other, seemingly amused at Hiroto’s vow.

“Is that so?” asked Sosuke. “You know Hiroto, there’s something I’ve wanted to do since the moment I met you, and for the life of me I can’t think of a single good reason not do it right fucking now.”

Even as he saw it before his eyes, Hiroto couldn’t believe it as Sosuke leapt up and struck him with the Road Saber.

“Ani! Sosuke, what are you doi-AH!” cried out Miu as she was struck by Saki’s Mantan gun in rod mode.

The other three Go-Ongers rushed out to join the fight.

Hiroto flailed as Sosuke kept striking him, trying to come to grips with what was happening; even in his worst case scenarios he had never even considered they would actually attack them!

Miu was also handicapped by shock, doing her best to dodge Saki’s Mantan gun. The Yellow Ranger seemed to be in ecstasy, laughing madly as she swung it, a wide, sadistic smile on her face.

“How are you guys having so much trouble with us, Miu? Don’t you remember? We’re weak!”

She struck Miu with the Mantan gun.

“Hapless!”

Saki leapt onto Hant’s shoulders and took off to deliever a sharp kick to Miu’s head.

“Pathetic!”

Miu yelled in pain as Saki unleashed Speeding Bullet at her, which sent her falling to the ground.

She saw Saki looking down at her with frenzied relish.

“Payback’s just like you Miu: it’s a real bitch!”

It was the gas, Miu told herself. This wasn’t really her, wasn’t any of them; they didn’t really feel this way about her and Hiroto…

Hiroto at last managed to strike back at Sosuke, punching him the face and sending him back.

“Please, all of you, listen! We don’t want to fight you!” said the Gold Ranger.

His plea fell on deaf ears as Ren came from behind and caught him in a head lock. As he struggled to break free, Gunpei ran at him and unleashed a series of brutal punches to his stomach.

The thing Hiroto was most struck by (even more than the literal strikes they were giving him) was the look on their faces. It was different than when they fought the Gaiark; they had wide smiles, giving a sense of immense satisfaction, as if they were finally fulfilling a desire they had long repressed.

“Double Borealis Shooter!”

Saki and Hant leapt across from each other while firing from their Mantan guns. The blasts hurled the Silver Ranger into the air, and she fell out of sight.

“Miu!” cried Hiroto. “You bastards, if you’ve hurt her-“

“You’ll what?!” said Sosuke, as he performed Saber Straight. “Put up an actual fight?!”

Hiroto yelled in pain as he was sent flying from the attack.

Kitaneidas whimpered as he watched his would-be savior struggling to stand, the five Go-Ongers calmly strode towards him. As Hiroto tried to figure out what to do, there was a blast in between them and the Go-Ongers.

The Go-Ongers looked up to see Jetras swooping down. The Engine fired another Jetras Tomahawk missile, causing them to seek cover.

When the dust cleared, both Hiroto and Kitaneidas were gone.

“No!” screamed Saki. “They got away from us!”

A furious Gunpei screamed in rage as he punched a boulder, shattering it into thousands of pebbles.

Then, their attention was on Sosuke, who was laughing in good cheer.

“You guys are looking at it all wrong; it’s not that they got away from us - it’s that they ran from us!”

At once, the Go-Ongers’ fury vanished, replaced by a manic giddiness.

“They ran” said Saki. “They ran because they’re afraid of us!”

“They knew we were going to win!” said Hant.

“We’re stronger than them!” said Ren.

“Stronger than Gaiark too!” said Gunpei.

“Nothing can stop us now” said Sosuke.

The Go-Ongers laughed violently, it gradually growing louder and more manic, until what sounded like the frenzied howling of animals echoed through the valley…

Chapter Text

The Go-On Wings lead the still bound Kitaneidas through the woods, some distance from where they had battled the Go-Ongers.

“I really have to thank you again” said the Pollution Minister, “especially considering our history. I hope you know it’s never been personal on our part, I mean we understand, our job is to invade Human World, yours is to protect it, but I always liked to think we both had a mutual respect for each other as worthy adversaries…Well, I’m guessing this is as awkward for you as it is for me, so if you’ll just remove these chains I’ll be taking off-AAAH!”

Kitaneidas fell as Hiroto pushed him over, then put his foot on the robot.

“You’re not going anywhere until you tell us what the hell is going on with the Go-Ongers” said Hiroto.

“What? How should I know!? I must say, this really feels like blaming the victim, doesn’t it?”

“This all started when they were exposed to that gas of yours!” said Miu.

“Wait, they were exposed to the Borakian gas!? Oh…oh my that would explain why they’ve been acting so out of sorts…”

“‘Borakian’ gas?” said Hiroto as he and his sister hoisted the Pollution Minister up.

“It’s from Gunman World, a naturally occurring volcanic gas with psychoactive properties. A tribe who live on the volcano use it in a ceremony where they summon and conquer their inner demons.”

“Do the Go-Ongers seem like they’ve conquered their inner demons to you!?” spat Miu.

“And somehow I doubt you guys went through all that trouble just to save the people of Tokyo money on therapy” said Hiroto.

“If you would let me finish… those of the tribe take a small, controlled amount after years of training for it. But if one were to be exposed to a large amount, not only having not undergone any preparation but not even knowing you’ve taken something…well, instead of conquering your demons, one’s demons conquer you! That was our plan, to spread it across the city and plunge the populace into chaos, then strike during the pandaemonium.”

“You mean to say you wanted to make the whole city like them!?” said Hiroto, furious that even the Gaiark would attempt so horrific a plot.

“According to my calculations only a small percentage would become violent. I never would have thought they of all people would have become this way. Whatever inner pain is making them act like this must be a real doozy.”

“How would we know what ‘inner demon’ is making them act like this?” asked Hiroto.

“Well, typically it’s whatever one they first think of after exposure. Do you know what happened right after they were exposed?”

Hiroto tensed up.

“I…” he sighed. “I scolded them.”

“Ahhhh, now we’re getting somewhere! Yes, now, from what we understood, you and the Go-Ongers did not initially get along, correct? You felt they were unworthy of fighting alongside you and it took some time for them to convince you otherwise?”

This time, both Sutous tensed up.

“Yes, that…that was the case” said Hiroto, after a moment.

“Ah! I surmise, then, that the gas has brought all their resentments and anger at you to the surface, overriding everything else.”

“No!” yelled Miu. “Those things they said…I know they don’t feel that way about us! You’re just lying as part of some plot-“

“Miu…” said Hiroto, putting his hand on her shoulder to calm her, though in truth he was also disturbed by the implications of what Kitaneidas was telling them.

“We want you to provide us a sample of the gas so we can develop a cure” he told the Pollution Minister.

“You expect us to aid you!?”

“You still plan on conquering Human World, right? Which Go-Ongers do you want to fight for it, their regular selves or the ones who just used as you as a piñata?”

“Ah. Well, when you put it like that…”

~~~

The Sutous had been through many strange experiences in their short time as the Go-On Wings, but never had they been as surreal as all three Pollution Ministers standing peacefully in their living room.

Yogostein plopped down a cylinder he had been holding over his shoulder.

“Here you go, 47 kg of Borakian gas.”

Kegalesia handed over a pad to Miu.

“This has all the data we have on it, including its chemical composition, mechanism of action, metabolism and excretion, and the results of our tests on it.”

“Thank you” said a taken aback Miu.

“I have to say” said Hiroto, “I’m surprised how cooperative you’ve been with this.”

“Hey, we saw the batt…whatever the fuck that was” said Yogostein. “Believe me, we want them back to normal as much as you do.”

“Yeah, I mean, even aside from the danger, I don’t want to have to be dealing with people that unpleasant every week” said Kegelasia.

“Come on, let’s go, Kitaneidas” said Yogostein.

“Finally! I’m eager to have this humiliating ordeal finally be over with!”

He turned to the Wings.

“Thank you, the tea was lovely.”

With that, the Gaiark turned to leave.

“By the way” said Kitaneidas, “thanks for the rescue attempt back there, wonderful to see how you cared.”

“Well, you don’t know how scary they looked on the screen back at the palace” said Kegalesia.

“‘Don’t know’? I was the one getting tortured!”

“Okay, so you know a bit how it was…”

The Wings and their partners felt relief at their foes-turned-temporary-allies leaving. It didn’t last, though, as Miu could not stop thinking about what Kitaneidas had told them.

She assumed the gas was some sort of Jekyll and Hyde deal, changing their virtuous personalities into those of villains. But from what Kitaneidas had told them, the gas did not create feelings, but just brought them to the surface, meaning… Those things they had been saying, their anger against her and Hiroto, were already in them… God, even Hiramechimedes at his crazed end hadn’t radiated the sheer hate the Go-Ongers had these past few days.

She wasn’t so blind as to not know what that might be. The initial relations between the two teams were frosty at best: returning home after their vigorous training on Machine World, had not been overjoyed to find others doing their Only One job, and furthermore that they seemed to be clowns who had just been lucky so far (even if there was something about their leader…) The Go-Ongers had been happy at the idea of new comrades in their battle, but she and Hiroto did their best to get them to step aside and let them handle fighting the Gaiark themselves.

Thinking back on it filled her with shame (as she knew it also did Hiroto, even if like her he had never brought the subject up). The pair had been acting like the spoiled brats they had the misfortune of going to school with; it should have been clear that the Go-Ongers could not have been beating the Gaiark simply through luck, that there was a method to their madness.

After a time, the two teams began to work together formally. It had been tense at first, but they been gradually growing closer, and their early history together had been, for the most part, forgotten…or at least, that had been the case for the Wings. Looking at it now, thinking that all was forgiven and forgotten, simply because they never brought it up, was more childish than anything the Go-Ongers had done.

Normally she would talk with Hiroto about something bothering her like this, but she worried how he himself might be struggling. After all, it had been his remarks that had unknowingly served as the catalyst for all of this…

Her ears picked something up; as it got louder, she realized it was the sound of small wheels, and before they knew it a small, squat robot rolled in.

“BOMPER!” shouted the siblings, who rushed over to the Go-Ongers’ mechanical helper.

“What are you doing here?” asked Hiroto.

“I had to get away! The Go-Ongers were getting weird and mean! When I saw what they were doing to their partners, I figured I had to get away from them while I still could…”

“I’m sorry, BOMPER…” said Miu, giving the robot the hug she knew Saki would had she been there…

“Well, here is reason to be hopeful” said Jum-BoWhale. “The data the Gariak provided us is indeed quite exhaustive. I can start work on a cure immediately whaaaale.”

“I’ll assist boomboom!” said BOMPER.

“God, I had forgotten that good news existed…” said Hiroto.

Suddenly, BOMPER twirled about.

“Boomboom! I’m picking up something on the news!”

Hiroto turned on the TV, which showed a distressed chipmunk cheeked woman was reporting live from outside a steel mill.

“-heroes known as the Go-Ongers have been raiding various facilities all day, stealing various construction as well as electronic materials. What could have caused these heroes, seemingly so devoted to the cause of justice, to suddenly go on a rampage and put the safety of innocents at risk?”

Hiroto turned to his sister.

“Let’s go, Miu” he said.

“Right!”

The two transformed and, once outside, used their Rocket Daggers to head for the mill.

“We won’t be taken by surprise like we were earlier, but we’ll still be outnumbered, so we need a strategy” said Hiroto as they flew. “We’ll try to separate them, take them on two on one; with that advantage, I think we should be able to beat them and take their Change Souls.”

“Good thinking, Ani.”

Hiroto paused to think about how to say the next thing.

“I know they’re our comrades, and they’re not responsible for their actions. But they’re threatening civilians now; we have to stop them, no matter what.”

After a pause, Miu nodded.

~~~

“Hurry up!” yelled Ren, aiming his Mantan gun at a procession of scared workers.

Koujirou Saegusa’s day had started out well; his infant daughter had slept the whole night for the first time, his wife had made him tamagoyaki for breakfast, and he arrived at work to find an asshole coworker had finally gotten canned.

Then, just an hour earlier, there was a loud noise, and the building shook. It didn’t take long before their fears were confirmed: they were under attack.

At first they assumed it was the Gaiark, but instead it turned out to be the Go-Ongers, the ones responsible for protecting them. They demanded they transfer the steel to their vehicles. Koujirou and his coworkers were rife with speculation on what was going on - they were imposters, this was some sort of duplicitous scheme - but all they could be sure of was that they were holding guns at them and so they’d better do what they said, which was to transport all their steel to their vehicles.

Koujirou was sweating as he drove the forklift; he knew he had to extra careful, as he loaded it with more steel than safety measures, but right now when it came to safety he was more worried about what the Go-Ongers would do if they found his efforts not up to snuff.

He felt somewhat calmer as he approached BearRV; this ordeal would be over soon. However, it was not soon enough for the forklift, straining under the extra weight. When Koujirou had to make a sharp turn, it tripped over and fell, spilling the steel beams all over.

“Idiot!”

Koujirou was unharmed, but he wondered how long that would last, as one of the Go-Ongers furiously marched over to him (Go-On Green - that was his youngest son’s favorite of them, “cause he’s silly.”)

Hant grabbed him by his neck and lifted him up, violently shaking him.

“What the hell were you thinking!? Are you really this stupid or are you trying to sabotage us!?”

Hant dropped him, and switched his Mantan gun to rod mod. Koujirou raised his arms in front of his face in anticipation of the coming strike.

“Let him go!”

The Wings landed, and Hant (and his teammates) promptly lost all interest in Koujirou, who quickly scurried away.

“Well, look who worked up the courage to confront us again” said Sosuke.

“You gave us no choice!” said Hiroto. “Now you’re hurting the people you’re pledged to protect!”

“We haven’t hurt anyone” said Hant.

“And we won’t, so long as they remain cooperative” said Ren.

The Wings marveled at how their allies had taken to talking like villains so naturally.

“Why are you doing this?” asked Hiroto.

“We need materials so as to construct the first of our fleet.”

“‘Fleet’?” asked Hiroto.

“Yes. You see, I have thought about how to go about eliminating the Gaiark for good” said Sosuke. “Our own forces are probably not up to the task. So, we must force the nations of the world to aid us.”

“‘Force’?” said Miu.

“That’s why we need the materials we’re taking” said Ren. “We’re constructing a new robo, stronger, with no time limit.”

“You mean you’re going to threaten the world?” asked Hiroto.

“If necessary” said Saki. “We’ll start with Japan, then the rest of the nations will follow. Once we have the world’s resources behind us, we can smash the Gaiark for good!”

Madness, thought Hiroto.

“By analyzing their tech, we’ll gain the ability to travel through the Brane Worlds, so we can occupy them so as to prevent them from ever becoming a threat.”

The Wings were horrified as they realized what they truly meant.

“‘Occupy’? You mean conquer!” said Hiroto.

“It would make humanity no better the Gaiark!” said Miu.

“Wrong - we’ll succeed where they failed” said Sosuke.

Hiroto struggled to maintain his composure; was there any limit to how far his comrades would fall?

“Listen, we know what’s happened to you!” said Miu. “That gas you were exposed to while fighting Boombox Banki, it altered your minds!”

The Go-Ongers chuckled.

“You mean you’ve only just realized that now?” said Hant.

“You…you already knew about the gas?” asked Hiroto.

“The Gaiark’s glorious gift to us” said Ren with reverence.

“Like your instructor said, our simpleness was our strength. Had we realized what was happening from the start, we would have been scared, tried to stop it. Why, we would probably turned to you” said Sosuke, spitting the last word out.

“Fortunately, by the time we caught on, we knew it was changing us for the better, making us stronger, superior!” said Hant.

“No it hasn’t!” yelled a distraught Miu. “Please, this isn’t who you guys are! You’re helpful and kind and funny, you’re not these cruel bullies!”

“Oh no, guys!” said Saki in mock distress. “We’re making Miu cwy!”

The Go-Ongers all pretended to cry while wiping their eyes. This mockery of his little sister enraged Hiroto.

“Can’t you morons see she’s trying to help you!?”

“Ahhh, that’s more like it!” said Sosuke. “There’s the Wings we know! Self righteous, punitive, always ready to put us in our place!”

Hiroto reminded himself to keep his temper under control no matter what. They were beyond reason, but there was no point in enflaming them even further.

“I told you before, we don’t want to fight you. But you’re threatening the people and it’s our duty to defend them.”

Even though they were wearing their helmets, the Wings could feel the sneers on the Go-Ongers’ faces.

“You still think you’re dealing with the old Go-Ongers” said Sosuke. “Weak, pathetic, beneath your notice. But those days are over…”

The Go-Ongers took out their weapons and leapt at the Wings, who put their backs to each other as they readied themselves for battle.

Saki came at Miu. The Silver Ranger tried to dodge but was too slow as Saki leapt up and delivered a roundhouse kick to her.

“We’re faster than you!” said Saki.

Hiroto went at Ren, motioning like he was going to use his Jet Dagger, only to instead take out his Wing Blaster, but Ren saw through the feint and was already dodging the blasts and firing with the Garage Launcher.

“We’re smarter than you!” said Ren.

As the other Go-Ongers came at home, Hiroto thought he saw an opening and reached out to punch Sosuke. The Red Ranger caught the punch in his fist, then delivering his own to the astonished Gold Ranger.

“We’re stronger than you!” said Sosuke.

The Wings regrouped, then jumped back in the fray. They didn’t fair any better than before, Ren delivering a kick to Hiroto’s stomach while Hant’s arm glowed as he delivered a Cycle Punch to Miu.

Hiroto went to his sister’s aid, only for Saki to leap in front of him, her Mantan gun in rod mode.

She immediately started slashing at him, laughing manically as she did so, while Hiroto lead her away from the others.

“Oh, always such a sourpuss, aren’t you Hiroto? You never did get how fun this can be!”

She was about to strike him again when Miu jumped in and blocked it with her Jet Dagger, but Saki seemed far from concerned.

“Ooh, I bet you two are no strangers to double teaming, huh? Luring some poor guy or girl to bed, only for the other to suddenly pop in, right?”

Ignore what she’s saying, Hiroto told himself in his head. She’s trying to mess with them, take their focus off the fight. Still, he couldn’t shake that the Go-Ongers’ training was evident; even with both of the Wings against just one of them, it felt like a struggle for them just to hold their own.

Finally, Miu performed a roundhouse kick and managed to knock her Mantan gun out of her hand.

Hiroto didn’t waste any time, taking advantage of Saki’s surprise and grabbed her arms from behind, managing to restrain her.

“Miu, get her Change Soul, now!”

Miu reached for the Yellow Ranger’s Go-Phone, but Saki lifted her legs and wrapped them around Hiroto, and managed to hoist and flip him over. Before he could recover, she grabbed him and threw him at Miu, and both of them were left laying on the ground.

Saki huffed in contempt.

“Even the two of you together can’t beat one of us. And you want us to leave the protection of the planet in your hands!”

The two got up, but Hiroto heard a bellowing cry of anger, and looked to see Gunpei charging like a bull. He pushed his sister out of the way just in time.

Hiroto felt like he had been hit by a truck when the Black Ranger made impact. They hit the wall and he found himself pinned against it. Gunpei was snarling as he grabbed his head and started to exert tremendous pressure, seemingly trying to crush his helmet (and what it protected) with his bear hands.

Miu was looking on in horror. She knew she lacked the strength to break his hold on her brother, and so repeatedly slashed the Black Ranger with her Jet Dagger, but Gunpei ignored them, laser focused on Hiroto.

Hearing her brother’s moans, Miu decided that desperate times called for desperate measures, and stabbed Gunpei in the shoulder.

Sorry, Gunpei…

The Black Ranger yelled in pain, allowing Hiroto to break free of him and kick him away, knocking him down on his back.

“Thank you, Miu…”

Her rescue didn’t change the fact that the battle wasn’t going well for them; even when they had isolated a Go-Onger, they were unable to take their Change Soul. They had to turn things around, and fast.

The other four Go-Ongers arrived.

“We’ve wasted enough time on you” said Sosuke, “Let’s end this!”

The five took out their weapons and combined them, after which Sosuke inserted Speedor’s Engine Soul into it.

“Super Highway Buster!”

The Wings took out their Wing Triggers, and inserted the Engine Souls of Toripter and Jetras into them.

“Wing Boosters! Boost Up!”

The two teams fired, and holographic representations of their Engine partners came racing out.

The two blasts collided, resulting in an explosion, the force of which sent the Wings hurtling back.

When Hiroto rose, he saw that the mill was now in flames, with smoke obscuring his vision.

“Miu? Miu!” he called out.

He felt a sense of relief when he saw a figure rushing towards him; but as it got closer he saw it was not his sister but Sosuke.

“How do you like it, Hiroto?”

The Red Ranger slashed at him with the Road Saber.

“To think you’re the best at something and then have someone show up who outclasses you in every way?”

Feeling worn and exhausted, Hiroto could do nothing as Sosuke struck him again and again.

“Does it make you feel inadequate? Worthless?”

Hiroto took out his Jet Dagger, only for Sosuke to knock it out of his hands and send it sliding across the floor.

“Like you’re not even a man!?”

Sosuke slashed the Gold Ranger right across his chest. Hiroto yelled in pain as sparks flew off his suit. This was one too many, and the hero collapsed.

At the same time, Saki had also delivered a final blow to Miu. The Wings lay still on the ground, utterly defeated.

“Checker Flag!” yelled the Go-Ongers as they posed in victory.

They then went over to their fallen opponents, both literally and figuratively looking down on the Wings.

“Now the question is, what shall we do with them?” said Saki.

Sosuke considered the matter.

“If they had won, they were going to take our Change Souls. So, it only seems fair that we claim theirs as spoils of war…”

“No…” moaned Hiroto, too exhausted to even raise his arm as the Red Ranger removed his Change Soul, and could then only watch helplessly as his suit dematerialized.

Saki took Miu’s right after, and her suit likewise vanished.

“There. That should encourage you both to stay out of our way” said Saki.

“You can go back to your lives of leisure while we save the world” said Sosuke.

With that, the Go-Ongers headed out, save one.

Hiroto felt frozen as Gunpei loomed over him, growling.

“Gunpei! Come!” said Sosuke.

“Without their Change Souls, they are merely two more hapless citizens living under our protection” said Ren.

Gunpei remained staring at the ex-Gold Ranger, and motioned as if he was going to strike him.

Hiroto raised his hands to cover his face from the expected blow, but it never came. He lowered them to hear Gunpei chuckling, the same ugly laugh he was horrified to realize he had come to associate with the Go-Ongers.

~~~

Hiroto and Miu had never felt so defeated as they stepped out of the taxi they had ridden home.

They had said essentially nothing to each other the whole trip, both humiliated at the loss of their Change Souls and distraught at the Go-Ongers’ continued escalation in their madness…

As they stepped inside their home, they saw the holograms of their partners looking at them sympathetically.

“I’m still proud of you, bro” said Toripter.

“You were faced with tough opponents; you did the best you could, buddy” said Jetras.

Miu nodded; she appreciated her partner trying to cheer her up, but it would take more than that to take away the pain of their loss.

“We do have good news for you” said Jum-BoWhale. “BOMPER and I have come up with a gaseous solution that should reverse the effects of the Borakian gas.”

BOMPER presented them a squat gas cylinder, blue and white and somewhat resembling a Chinese lantern.

“We also tested to make sure the Gaiark weren’t trying to trick us into harming them in any way boomboom” said the robot.

Hiroto took and examined the cylinder, now the sole hope they had for undoing the horror they had found themselves in.

“Now, we were only able to produce a limited amount in the time available to us. It should be enough, but you’ll need to expose all of them at once to it in a confined space.”

Hiroto’s relief was suddenly tempered by the Engine’s words.

“Instructor…what do you mean ‘the time available to us’?”

“I’m afraid time is not on our side. You must expose the Go-Ongers to the cure as soon as possible. Otherwise, within the next few days, the effects of the gas will become permanent…”

At that, Miu dropped in her seat, her wide eyes staring directly ahead, slowly soaking in the idea of the Go-Ongers she knew vanishing forever…

“No…”

Hiroto himself silently considered it, his distress at the idea added by the guilt he felt.

Every living thing on this planet is depending on us, and you still act like children playing a game! When are you all finally going to grow up!?

Their thoughts came to a stop when they heard footsteps. Before they could investigate, in came Kegalesia.

The two immediately shifted into battle stances, assuming the Gaiark had found out about the loss of their Change Souls and decided to take the opportunity to eliminate them.

Their fears seemed confirmed as the Pollution Minister looked at the two with her usual expression of superiority, suggesting she knew they lacked the means to defend themselves against her.

“We know where they are.”

At that, the siblings softened their stances.

“What are you talking about?” asked Miu.

“The Go-Ongers. We know where they’re hold up, where they’ve made their new base. They’ve taken one from one of our predecessors in invading your world.”

“Why are you telling us this?” asked Hiroto.

“We’re aware that they’re planning to strike us. Obviously, we’re prepared to launch a full scale attack. However, we’re not sure what their defenses are, so we would still prefer if you could deal with the matter yourselves.

“Now, we know they’ve taken your Change Souls, so, we’ve decided to provide you with aid.”

At that, a second large chest suddenly materialized next to Kegalesia.

Opening by itself, the Sutous looked inside to find various devices.

“What are these?” asked Miu.

“Prototypes for various weapons we gave our Banki Beasts. We figured that would even the odds a bit for you.”

The siblings looked at each other, unnerved at the idea of receiving aid from the Gaiark. The Water Pollution Minister seemed a bit uncomfortable herself.

“Well…here’s the location” she said, handing a pad to them. “We leave it to you.”

Why, Hiroto wondered, does her saying that not feel him with optimism on their chances?

After Kegalesia left, the siblings saw no point in putting it off.

“I suppose we should get going…” said Miu.

“One moment.”

The siblings turned to their teacher.

“I have come to see the Go-Ongers as my students as well, and want more than anything to see them restored to their true selves” said Jum-BoWhale, “but as your instructor I feel duty bound to make sure you understand what you’re getting into. Every time you’ve encountered them they’ve been worse than before; confront them again, and you must assume they’ll be willing, even actively attempting, to kill you whaaale.”

Just a week ago, the idea that the Go-Ongers would try to take their lives would have been ludicrous to the siblings; now…

“When we agreed to become Go-On Wings, we did so fully knowing the risks, including that one” said Hiroto. “The loss of our Change Souls doesn’t change that.”

Miu nodded in agreement.

“This is an ‘only one’ job. It’s our responsibility to do it.”

“I thought that would be your answer. In that case, I can only wish you good luck.”

“Miu, Hiroto…” said BOMPER. “As you know, I was created to assist the Go-Ongers in their battle against the Gaiark. However, they have come to mean far more to me than mere allies…I beseech you, please return my friends to me.”

The siblings were somewhat taken aback by their heartfelt request. Miu knelt down to the robot.

“We will, BOMPER. I promise” she says with determination.

With that, the two went outside, Miu holding the gas cylinder to her chest as if it were an infant.

Then, they suddenly stopped, as if just realizing the enormity of their challenge that laid ahead for them.

Miu sighed.

“What is it?” asked Hiroto.

She chuckled as she shook her head.

“I was just thinking…if Sosuke were here - the real Sosuke, I mean - he’d give some speech about how even though the odds are against us, we shouldn’t give up hope, that if we believed in ourselves there was no way we’d lose.”

Hiroto managed a slight smile as he nodded.

“It’d be a ridiculous, childish rant, yet somehow, the conviction in his voice would make you believe him…”

Miu squatted down on her knees, fiddling with her hands.

“Ani…I know we always have each other, that we need no one else. But…these last few months…it’s been really nice to have others we could rely on, hasn’t it?”

Hiroto sighed and nodded, before he noticed the glum look on his sister.

“Hey now…remember what Saki always says.”

He put his fingers on the ends of her mouth and lifted it up.

“Smile, smile.”

The smile stayed on his sister’s face when he removed them.

“I guess we should try to think of a plan for how we’re going to do this” she said.

“Given the lack of information we have about where we’ll be facing them, I don’t see how we could think of a plan…”

“Meaning…?”

Hiroto chuckled.

“I guess we’ll just have to blindly rush in…”

“Huh. Well, hopefully that works out for us as well as it does for some people we know…”

From a nearby vantage point, unnoticed by either, Kegalesia watched as the siblings set out to confront their friends.

“Good luck, guys…”

Chapter Text

Miu kept one hand on the rock walls as she and Hiroto maneuvered themselves through the cave.

The Gaiark’s information showed that they could access the Go-Ongers’ newly claimed base via this narrow cavern, so now they transversed it with only a flashlight to show the way forward, trying not to think of the stories their grandfather told them about Shitodo Cave. Adding to her anxiety was the fear that at any moment the Go-Ongers could show up; confronting her crazed former allies, now not even being able to transform into Go-On Silver, was scary in any scenario, but she especially didn’t want to do so in this dark and tight space.

She took her next step, only to find nothing for her foot, and ended up falling into a pit of…rocks? No, they felt hollow and brittle…

“Miu!” she heard her brother call out.

“Down here, Ani” she said.

He shined the flashlight on her, and Miu found herself face to fleshless face with a human skull; she had fallen into a pile of human bones. Not wanting to alert the Go-Ongers to their presence, she kept her scream internal.

Hiroto jumped down and lifted her up. Shining a light on them, he examined the bones.

“These are all old; the newest ones have at least been here a few years” he told her.

“Oh. Well, that makes everything fine then-“

She then realized what her brother meant: that the Go-Ongers hadn’t done this, that they at least weren’t that far gone.

The two continued on their way, eventually hearing sounds of construction. As they got closer, there was more light - which would had calmed them, except they now saw that walls had niches that displayed stone figures of fearsome humanoid cats.

When they finally got out of the cave they got whiplash; from a primitive dwelling they had entered a huge hangar that seemed as advanced as any of the most cutting edge in tech facilities on Human World, the only continuity being the presence of more stone cat men, though these were much larger at 7 meters tall.

But what immediately captured their attention was the monstrosity in the center, surrounded by seemingly thousands of automated systems working on it.

It was a robo, the one Miu saw sketched in Ren’s notebook. Standing 30 meters tall. It somewhat resembled Engine O, but was larger and wider (it must have had over twice the tonnage) and much more militaristic. It’s main body made of a red condor, blue lion, and yellow bear, and it’s arms a green orca and a black German Shepherd, but instead of the Engines’ friendly faces, these were fierce looking beasts meant to scare whatever enemy was unlucky enough to face it.

“How’d they build this so quickly?” she asked.

“From those cat figures, I think I can guess” said Hiroto. “You remember the Questers?”

“They were one of those Negative Syndicates that were running amuck two years ago, right?”

Hiroto nodded.

“The last of the Ashu, a race that evolved alongside humanity, and was bent on wiping it out, reborn with the technology of the ancient Gordom Civilization. The Boukengers destroyed them, but their base was never found…until now I suppose.

“There were only two of them, but they managed to manufacture a series of giant robots by themselves. They must have set up an exhaustive automative system to construct them.”

“Very informative, Hiroto. You really missed your calling to be a tour guide.”

The Sutous turned to see Hant approaching them, his Mantan gun in rod mode in hand.

“You couldn’t help yourselves, could you?” he said. “You couldn’t stand standing by and letting us save the word. If only you could use your egos as a power source, no one could stand against you. As it stands, though, you’re dead meat.”

As Hant raised his Mantan gun over them, Hiroto pulled out a magnet from his jacket, and it was ripped from his hands.

The siblings took off, a furious Hant following. Miu turned and took out a small gun; when she pulled the trigger, a stream of oil came out. The Green Ranger slipped and fell on the slick.

Before he could get back up, she had took out a taser, and struck it to his chest, electrocuting him into unconsciousness.

“Let’s go, Miu” said Hiroto.

They’d been lucky so far, but they had to get out of the open before the others arrived. He motioned her to an air vent. He took off the grille and the two crawled inside, Hiroto putting it back behind them.

~~~

The two had been crawling for roughly half an hour when they heard shouting from a grille up ahead.

“How could you let them get away!?” they heard Ren yell. “We took their Change Souls, they can’t transform! Beating them should have been child’s play!”

The siblings went further, until they could see but were reasonably sure could not be seen.

There were the Go-Ongers, their helmets off. Sosuke was still and facing away from them, but Ren, Saki, and Gunpei looked furious, while Hant was scared, looking like a deer surrounded by a pack of wolves.

“He was always the weakest of us!” yelled Saki. “We never should have let him join!”

Gunpei uttered an angry growl as loomed over the Green Ranger.

Then Sosuke calmly raised his hand, and the three promptly went silent. He walked over to Hant.

“Hant, do you know what the Wings are doing right now?”

Hiroto and Miu held their breaths, thinking Sosuke was about to look right up at them.

Instead, he grabbed Hant by the throat and lifted him up.

“They’re LAUGHING at us!”

He repeatedly struck Hant against the wall.

“They’re laughing at us, because despite how much stronger we’ve gotten, even though WE have our powers and they don’t, they’re still making us look like incompetent clowns!”

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry!”

“‘Sorry’!? Oh, not yet you’re not.”

He threw him on the ground and started kicking him.

Ren and Saki immediately joined in; Gunpei hesitated for a moment before he too started assaulting his teammate, who was screaming in pain, begging them to stop.

Watching, Hiroto’s mouth was open agape.

My God, they’re even turning on each other…

He turned to check on his sister; she was covering her mouth while tears trickled down her face as she watched the horrific scene.

“They’re…they’re monsters, Ani” she whispered.

Hiroto nodded in agreement. He remembered last year, when he attended a fundraiser for SGS wih his family. He happened into a conversation with Eiji Takaoka. The Boukenger told him firsthand of the Questers, how fearsome they were, how their brutality outmatched even their other foes.

There was not a shred of doubt in Hiroto’s mind that his former allies were the most vicious beings to ever use this base.

Finally, mercifully, it ended. Sosuke lifted up the bloodied and bruised Hant.

“There! Now you’re sorry! But not nearly as sorry as you’ll be if you fuck up again, got it!?”

Hant whimpered as he frantically nodded his head.

“The Go-Ongers are no longer a team of weaklings, Hant! If you can’t cut it, we’ll cut you!”

With that, Sosuke let go of Hant, who dropped back to the ground, and turned to the others.

“Come on! They won’t be laughing once we find them!”

The four of them headed out, as Hant curled into a fetal position and continued crying.

“Come on, Miu, let’s go” said Hiroto.

“What!? You can’t be serious, we can’t just leave Hant like that-“

“Miu, if they find out we helped him, they’ll accuse him of betraying them to us, and they’ll kill him.”

Miu could only hold her mouth agape at the realization that her brother was right, which was perhaps even more horrible than what she just witnessed…

~~~

Hiroto kicked open the grille and slid out, helping Miu out after him. He then headed for the door in the room.

“All right, Miu, we have to find a layout of this place, so we can-“

He stopped as he heard weeping.

He looked to see his sister was sitting with her back to the wall, hugging her knees and crying.

Hiroto sat down beside her and hugged her. He couldn’t blame her; this whole thing had been like a nightmare…

“Doesn’t it bother you?”

Hiroto was confused as to what she meant.

“The things they’re saying - how we don’t respect them, think they’re beneath us, that we want them out of the way, that we despise them. They’re our best friends - our only friends - and they think we hate them!”

“Miu, it’s the gas, they’re not-“

“Ani, we can’t just dismiss this as the gas! You heard what Kitaneidas said, it doesn’t create emotions, only brings them to the surface! Everything they’re saying must be something that at least on some level they thought was true!”

“Miu, I understand how you feel, but there’s are more important concerns right. They have a giant robot almost ready to go-“

“You keep acting like this is just another mission! Can’t you see? The giant robot isn’t important! They don’t actually care about it or taking power on Earth or conquering the other Brane Worlds - I don’t think they even care about the Gaiark! It’s us! Everything they’ve done since being exposed to the gas has been about us! Proving themselves to us, outdoing us, beating us… Think about it, what made them do that to Hant?”

“Because we got away from him.”

“No, that made them mad, but what was it that pushed them over the edge? They thought we were laughing at them, Ani! It wasn’t that we set back their plans, it was the idea that after all they’ve done we still think of them as a joke! Don’t you get it, Hiroto, this is our fault! They’re doing all this because of an inferiority complex we gave them!”

With that, it was like all the energy had gone out of the room. The two sat in silence, avoiding looking at each other.

“We never apologized for how we treated them…” said Miu, finally.

“The honor of letting them work alongside us was supposed to be compensation enough” said Hiroto in disgust. “You’re right Miu. They are monsters, but ones of our own making.”

“How can we ever make it up to them…?” said a tearful Miu.

Hiroto grabbed the cylinder.

“I know how we can start…”

Miu nodded, and the two got up. They were just about to open the door when it did so itself.

“You girls done gossiping in here?” asked Saki.

Gunpei growled as he grabbed both of them.

~~~

Hiroto and Miu winced in pain as Gunpei pressed down on their shoulders, forcing them to kneel before the others.

“We figured we’d see you again” said Sosuke. “Even without your powers, you figured you could easily outwit the stupid Go-Ongers. Well, we’re now your superiors - no longer are we incompetent fools whom you can run rings around, pathetic children playing games-“

“Shut up.”

The Go-Ongers could hardly bring themselves to be angry, so astonished that Hiroto dared to say that to them.

“What did you say?” said Sosuke.

“You heard me. I said shut up!”

He looked up at them, his face showing no fear, only disgust at his captors.

“I am sick and tired of listening to you insult the Go-Ongers!”

The team looked confused, until Sosuke put on an ugly smirk.

“Maybe Hant did get some in hits on you. We are the Go-Ongers.”

“No you’re not! The Go-Ongers are heroes, brave and courageous, who fight because they love and want to protect this planet and all those who call it home!”

“Ani…” said Miu, looking up at her brother with pride.

“What are you saying?” asked Sosuke. “You yourselves said as much when you first showed up!”

“And we were wrong! We’ve known we were for a long time! No, it isn’t Miu and I who look down on them, but you! You’re the ones who hate them, who think they’re pathetic clowns, that they can’t measure up to us! That’s all you are - their doubts and insecurities! You think you’re their strengths but you’re their weaknesses! And no matter how fearsome and tough you try to be, everyone will know you’re just tying to hide how scared you really are!

“No, you’re not the Go-Ongers! You’re a disgrace to them who I’m honored to call comrades! No…more than comrades. They’re our friends…

“And we came here to get them back!”

At that, Hiroto broke free of Gunpei’s grasp, reached into his jacket and took out a gun. Firing it, the area was filled with smog.

The Go-Ongers staggered through the blackness, Saki and Ren hitting each other.

“Watch where you’re going you damn fool!” said Saki, pushing the Blue Ranger down.

They started shaking their arms about in an attempt to wave it away.

“Where are they!?” screamed Sosuke. “Where are they, God damnit!”

As the smog dissipated, they saw Hiroto heading for the computer console.

“Get him!” yelled Sosuke.

They headed for him, only for Miu to leap in between them.

“Miu, hold them off as long as you can.”

“Right!”

She assumed a fighting pose against the Go-Ongers, hiding the fear she felt. Perhaps, she thought, the Go-Ongers were hiding theirs as well, as they calmly walked to her.

She took out a hammer themed gun.

“Stay back!”

This only made Sosuke laugh.

“Little Miu, still wanting to play hero… tell me, did you stop to think how you’re going to shoot at all of us at once?”

Miu’s eyes went across them all, realizing the truth of what he said. So, she turned the gun away from them and instead fired at one of the cat person statues.

The Go-Ongers ran as it fell and broke. She had bought her brother a few moments before they resurfaced.

Growling, Sosuke leapt over the fallen statue right to Miu. She tried to fire again but Sosuke grabbed it and tossed it away.

“Thought that was funny, didn’t you!?” said Sosuke. “You’ve always thought you were so cute, laughing at us, you stuck up bitch…”

Disturbed at the words and tone coming out of Sosuke, Miu backed away.

“What’s wrong, Miu” he asked as he grabbed her, “not feeling so superior now that you’ve run out of toys?”

The Red Ranger lost his cocky smile when she grabbed his arm and flipped him over her shoulder.

Hiroto was too focused on the computer screen to admire his sister’s form. He figured the Questers had prepared defenses in the event the Boukengers invaded, and that he could find and activate some that would help them. Just had to find something non-lethal…

Gunpei grabbed Miu and held her up. Hiroto had just found something when he felt arms around himself.

“Your little sister can’t protect you anymore” said Sosuke as he pulled him away.

With all of his strength, Hiroto managed to reach out and press a button.

Sosuke let go as electricity crackled all over their suits, also allowing Miu to get away from Gunpei. The Go-Ongers withered in pain for a few moments before their suits dematerialized. Once they recovered, they looked at themselves with confusion.

They removed and then reinserted their Change Souls into their changers.

“Change Soul set! Let’s Go On!”

They posed, only for nothing to happen. They tried again, and again there were no results.

Miu went over to her brother.

“What did you do?”

“There’s a theory that all Sentai receive their power from the same source, some sort of outerdimensional grid. When I saw the Questers had a way to cut off the Boukengers’ powers for 30 minutes, I gambled it would work on the Go-Ongers as well.”

Hearing this, the Go-Ongers got over their shock.

“No powers, huh?” said Sosuke. “You think that would stop us now!?”

The Go-Ongers charged them, all yelling like animals with crazed looks on their faces. Hiroto and Miu braced themselves; even though both teams now lacked powers, the Go-Ongers still had an advantage not just in numbers but in viscousness.

Sosuke leapt at him and grabbed his neck.

“Always thought you were above us. Think because you’re rich and did good in school that you’re better than me, that I’m just dogshit to scrape off your shoes! I’ll fucking show you who’s fucking superior!”

Hiroto felt spit on his face as the Red Ranger snarled at him.

Miu was right, he realized; if he asked him about their plans right now he doubted he would even know what he was talking about. They were now completely taken by bloodlust for the Wings.

Oh God, what if we’re already too late?

Nearby, Miu was doing her best to avoid the blows from Ren and Saki.

“Rich pricks, already born with everything, thinking you’re the only ones deserving of the Engines’ power!” said Ren as he delivered a kick to her. “Tell us, was it how we conducted ourselves that truly offended you, or was it just that commoners were sharing your power instead of working as wage slaves for your family!?”

Ren struck Miu, the force of what made cylinder fall out and roll over to Saki, who picked it up.

“What is this…?”

Ren, forgetting about Miu for a moment, grabbed a device and scanned it.

“It appears to contain a gas with similar properties to the one that changed us, but which would…would counteract its effects…”

For the first time since being exposed to the gas, Miu saw fear on the Go-Ongers’ faces.

“They’re trying to make us like we were before” said Ren. “They want to make us weak again!”

“Oh yeah?”

Saki grabbed Miu’s fallen hammer gun and aimed it at the cylinder.

“Well forget it, Wings, cause the new Go-Ongers are here to stay!”

“NO!”

Miu ran out and pushed Saki just as she pulled the trigger, and the blast just missed the cylinder.

Miu’s relief at that instantly faded when Saki raised her head. She gasped at the look of pure hate she gave her.

“You fucking CUNT!” she screamed as she launched herself at the Silver Ranger.

Miu fell as Saki leapt onto her, just managing to grab the the Yellow Ranger’s hands before they dug into her. She had gone completely feral; it was all Miu could do to keep her from breaking free and attacking her.

“‘Not Go-Onger, Go-On Wing.’”

“What?” asked Miu.

“When we first met, remember? We thought you were Go-Ongers, but from the start you had to make clear that we weren’t the same, that you were superior to us!

“We were protecting Earth from the Gaiark for half a year while you were getting groomed by the Engines on their world! You should have had to prove yourselves to us! Instead you treated us like trash! You made us feel like trash!”

Miu’s grip loosened, and Saki managed to break one arm free, scratching her cheek, drawing blood, before the Silver Ranger thrust it in the air again.

“Well, now you two are finally going to get what you deserve! My only regret is you won’t live to see how history will remember us as the saviors of humanity while you and your brother go down as traitors!”

So focused on keeping her at bay was Miu that it was only when she felt droplets of water on her face that she realized Saki had started crying.

“The Gaiark gave us more respect than you did!” yelled Sosuke as he smashed Hiroto’s face into a computer console a couple of times.

The Gold Ranger managed to kick him away, but no sooner had he done so than Ren came at him, grabbing him from behind.

As Hiroto tried to break free of his grip, he smiled as he saw something and got an idea.

He reached out and pressed a button. Hiroto heard a low humming that steadily increased in volume. Two objects on the table resembling desk lamps started heating up, and soon were generating an orange energy beam. It was used for cutting, and Ren knew just what he wanted to cut.

He maneuvered Hiroto towards it, started pushing his head into it. The Gold Ranger felt the back of his hair burn up in the beam. He reached out his arm along the table till he felt something heavy and smashed it against Ren’s head.

The Blue Ranger went down, but Hiroto’s own head immediately took a sharp blow.

Gunpei continued to throw savage punches at him. He almost regretted canceling the Go-Ongers’ powers, as at least then his terrifying face of rage would have been concealed by his helmet.

Hiroto pulled out the smog gun, but the Black Ranger grabbed it, then managed to crush it in his bare hands.

Tossing the remains away, Gunpei grabbed Hiroto and forced him to the floor, grabbing his hands and holding them behind his back. Then he leaned down and pressed his knee to his neck. Hiroto could only look at Gunpei’s crazed smile as he struggled to breathe.

Above all this was the statue of a lion man, who seemed to be grinning, as if savoring the sight of his race’s enemy fighting each other to the death.

Miu felt her strength fade while Saki was as forceful as ever, seemingly able to channel an infinite amount of energy from her hatred.

“Spend my whole life trying to make everyone happy, everyone smile, thinking that they’ll appreciate it, appreciate me. Instead, I’m just annoying, or someone to use! You, Sanae… I just wanted to be your friend! Well fine! If the world wants to be mean and nasty, I’ll fucking show them mean and nasty! I’ll give you a real reason to hate me!”

“No!” said Miu. “Ani and I do appreciate your smile, Saki! I’m sorry. I know we were wrong, we were cruel, but I swear, we don’t hate you! For God’s sake, we love you guys!”

At that, Saki froze, looking shocked, like she didn’t know what to do. Miu cautiously let go of her hands and got up. Before she went, she looked to Saki.

“Don’t worry, Saki, we’re going to make everything right.”

Miu took off, and Saki scowled again.

“No…you’re lying. You’re just a lying bitch!”

But by then Miu was well away, the gas cylinder with her.

Hiroto felt his vision getting blurry as Gunpei continued forcing his knee on his throat. He didn’t have long before he lost consciousness and never regained it. He knew he couldn’t break free with force; he had only one, very long shot.

“Gunpei…” he managed to say. “You pride yourself as being a professional. Tell me - do you feel like a professional now?”

At that, Gunpei’s sadistic smile went away, and Hiroto felt the pressure ease.

“Why don’t you say anything? Do you even remember how? Can’t you see what this has done to you!? All you’re good for now is attacking, hurting others! You’re not superior, you’re a dog!”

Gunpei suddenly stopped forcing pressure, removing his knee from Hiroto’s throat.

“Go” he said in a guttural voice.

“Gunpei…”

“Go - now! Hurry…”

Hiroto did so, looking back to see the look of intelligence leave Gunpei’s eyes. When he realized that he had willingly let his prey escape, he took out his rage by tearing at the various devices within reach, smashing and throwing them about.

Hiroto ran past a corner when someone grabbed his arm. He breathed a sigh of relief when he saw it was Miu. The siblings hugged each other, both relieved they were okay.

“Ani, for a moment, I got through to Saki.”

“Yes, I just had a similar experience with Gunpei. Our friends are still in there. I don’t know how much longer that’ll be true, though. We need to come up with a plan now…”

The Go-Ongers regrouped with each other.

“What’s wrong with you all?!” shouted Sosuke. “Do you want them to humiliate us!?”

“Oh, like you’ve done any better!” snapped Saki. “Some leader you are, always acting like a child!”

Sosuke looked like he was about to strike her, when Hiroto showed up.

“You guys still interested in Miu and I, or do you want to fight each other?”

This got the Go-Ongers’ attention.

“Destroy the Gaiark, colonize the Brane Worlds…pretty ambitious for a team who turns on each other at the slightest setback.”

Before they could reply, their Go Phones and Shift Changers suddenly lit up.

Sosuke smiled.

“Time up” he said.

They inserted their Change Souls into their changers. In a flash, the Go-Ongers were once again fully suited.

“No more games” said Sosuke. “This is the end for you, Hiroto.”

Hiroto, looking spent, stared at the floor.

“Yeah. I guess it is…”

He looked up and smiled.

“But first, you have to catch me!”

The Gold Ranger took off, and the Go-Ongers gave chase.

Hiroto ran like he never had before, his legs straining, the Go-Ongers continually closing the gap between them. He couldn’t let them catch him, he told himself - he couldn’t - he wouldn’t - let the Go-Ongers down…

He finally saw the room he was looking for and went in; the Go-Ongers followed him inside.

Once in, though, there was no sign of him.

“Where are you!?” yelled Sosuke. “Show yourself you coward!”

All he received in reply was a moan.

“Hant?” said Ren, seeing their teammate laying on the ground.

Before they could figure out what was going on, they heard the door shut behind them.

They rushed over and tried to open it, only to find it locked.

They pounded on it, till they saw Hiroto pop up in the window.

“What the hell is this?!” yelled Ren. “Let us out now!”

“Sure thing” said Hiroto, “once you guys take a chill pill. Or gas, in this case. Now, Miu!”

“Okay!”

Within seconds, a blue gas came out of the vent. It soon filled the room. Sosuke fell first, while the others seemed to be fighting it.

“No!” screamed Saki. “We’re not going back!”

She pounded on the window even more furiously than before as Hiroto, joined by Miu, watched with a mixture of hope and pity.

Despite their protests, Ren, Saki, and Gunpei all screamed as they reverted to civilian guise and collapsed on the ground, the Borakian gas emerging from the bodies as they did, as it did from Hant.

The Wings let out breaths of relief, this nightmare finally at an end.

Then, they heard a bang on the glass.

With dread, they looked to see a still transformed Sosuke continuously banging his head against the window.

“My god…” said Hiroto. “He’s still infected…”

“What?” said Miu. “But how!?”

Hiroto couldn’t answer her for certain. Maybe by dropping to the ground he had managed to avoid the curative gas. Maybe he had absorbed more of the Borakian gas than the others had. Or maybe it was that Esumi stubbornness that had saved them all so many times before…

The glass cracked as the Red Ranger gave another bang.

“Sosuke, stop you’re going to hurt yourself!” yelled Miu.

Sosuke ignored them, and screamed as he gave one final bang, this time shattering the glass. The Red Ranger crawled through the newly made opening like Sadako coming out of the TV.

When he rose, the Wings saw that the left half of his helmet had shattered from the impact, revealing a face of madness.

“No…” said Miu, realizing that the Sosuke she knew was now forever lost.

“Prove I’m stronger…”

He took out the Road Saber, and lurched towards Hiroto.

Miu stepped in front of her brother.

“Sosuke, please, don’t do this-“

Sosuke made a guttural growl as he pushed her out of his way, then went for the Gold Ranger.

“Prove I’m stronger!”

He came at Hiroto, swinging the Saber. The Gold Ranger dodged; Sosuke’s movement was choppy, robotic - he was clearly running on fumes. But he was blocking any means of escape; all three Rangers knew it was only a matter of time.

“Prove I’m stronger!”

He swung again, and Hiroto was a little too slow, and the blade cut a long wound along his leg. It wasn’t deep, but it was enough to fell him.

Sosuke raised the Road Saber above the Gold Ranger who was unable to either flee or defend himself. Miu threw herself over him in a desperate attempt to shield her brother.

“Prove I’m stronger-“

“You proved it long ago!”

Sosuke froze, taken aback by what Hiroto just said.

“When we arrived back here from Machine World, and found out they’re were others who had been fighting the Gaiark while we’d been training. We should have been grateful that someone had been protecting Earth in our stead; instead, we resented the idea of having to share the ‘glory’ of defending mankind. So we humiliated you, thinking you’d quit immediately.

“But you didn’t. At first we thought you were just pigheaded, but we soon realized we had just underestimated your commitment to the fight. You endured our disrespect; we realized that every time we confronted the Gaiark, you would be there as well, each time forcing us to raise our opinion of you.”

“Trying…trying to trick me…” said Sosuke, but he sounded uncertain, as if he were trying to convince himself.

“And, when we finally could no longer deny your abilities, you freely gave us your hands in friendship, even though we were too proud…too weak to even apologize…”

Sosuke stood still, tears now running down his face.

Hiroto closed in on the Red Ranger and wrapped his arms around him.

“You’ve always been stronger than us - right from the very start.”

Sosuke dropped the Road Saber, and buried his head on Hiroto’s shoulder as he wept.

Then, he raised his head, and broke away from him.

He staggered, breathing heavily, holding his head as if it was in pain.

“Sosuke, what’s wrong?” asked Mou.

“The gas - he’s trying to fight it off…” said Hiroto.

Sosuke’s cries of pain increased as he started to sink to the ground.

“You can do it, Sosuke!” said Miu. “We believe in you - I believe in you!”

Sosuke seemed to find new resolve, and started to rise. He looked up and screamed as if in defiance, as gas emerged from his mouth, nose, eyes, and ears.

Like his teammates, Sosuke’s suit vanished. Hiroto caught him as he fell, and the Red Ranger, seemingly battling to stay conscious, reached into his jacket pocket and pulled something out.

He presented their Change Souls to them; Hiroto graciously took them, and Sosuke smiled before he went out like a light. The Gold Ranger lowered him onto the floor; he looked like someone who hadn’t slept for days finally getting some rest…

“Thank God it’s finally over…” said Miu.

“No, not over yet…”

The siblings looked up to see the gas expelled by Sosuke. It hadn’t dissipated, but was hovering above them.

From the broken window, the gas from the other Go-Ongers drifted towards it, and swirled and merged together.

“You think you’ve won, but all you’ve done is liberate us from the prison of the the flesh” the gestalt being said, sounding like the Go-Ongers speaking in unison.

“Ani, what’s going on?” asked Miu.

“The Borakian gas…it must have the impressions of the Go-Ongers’ altered minds imprinted on it, like silly putty…”

“If we can’t be this world’s saviors, then we’ll be its destroyers!”

With that, the gas whooshed into the computer console, traveling down wires and eventually emerging in the cockpit of the now completed robo.

“Max Fury, activate!” it yelled.

Inside the colossus, its Gordom Engine turned on, the power it generated soon reaching the rest of the metal giant. Its eyes flashed on, glowing red.

It raised its left arm out for a salute, then crossed it against its chest.

The Wings arrived just in time to see the robo leave the platform, the ground violently shaking with every step it took.

Hiroto went to a console.

The hangar door started to lift, only to stop after reaching only the robot’s feet.

Hiroto wiped his brow, having succeeded in stopping it. Then he held on for life as Max Fury punched the door, the blows reverberating through the whole base, making bigger and bigger dents until the whole thing fell.

The Wings watched helplessly as the metal monster set off for Tokyo.

“Oh, I’m sorry, Ani” said an apologetic Miu. “I guess the giant robot was important, too.”

Chapter Text

A family of sika deer had been drinking from a stream when they heard the loud blows, followed by a huge metal door hitting the ground. They were among the first in what became a stampede of wildlife fleeing the metallic colossus that slowly strode through the forest. Underground, badgers scurried as the weight of its footsteps made their burrows cave in. A pair of black paradise flycatchers were forced to abandon a just completed nest as the tree it had been made on, a 300 year old hinoki cypress, fell.

Hiroto and Miu watched the trail of destruction it left, and imagined it doing the same in Tokyo.

“We have to stop that thing before it reaches the city” said Hiroto.

“Right” said Miu.

The two took their newly returned Change Souls and inserted them into their Wing Triggers.

“Change Soul Set! Let’s Go On!”

Once transformed, Hiroto dialed three numbers on his Jet Dagger.

“Engine Casts, teleport” he said.

A silver metal briefcase materialized in front of them. They opened it and removed the casts of their partners and mentor. They inserted their Souls, and leapt into their now full sized partners.

“Wing Trigger Set! Engine Fusion! Mission Start!” they said as they initiated the transformation process.

JumBo-Whale transformed into a blue, humanoid robot, with Toripter and Jetras joining to serve as arms.

“Seikuu-O! Tune Up! Go On!”

Seikuu-O flew to Max Fury, which halted its movement as it looked up at its challenger.

“Ah, excellent; now we can take vengeance on your Engine masters as well!”

Miu grinned as they dived in to attack. After the last few days, it was a welcome change to fight the deranged personas of the Go-Ongers without worry or guilt. Hiroto, however, was more guarded - they knew nothing about Max Fury’s strength or offensive capabilities, but if it was even half as tough as it looked, they could have a hell of a fight on their hands…

The Wings struck first, as Seikuu-O shot off various projectiles shot off at the robo.

“Seikuu Sonic!”

The bulky mech did not even bother to try to dodge them, standing still as they hit it.

The Wings waited for the smoke to clear to see what damage they inflicted; to their dismay, not much, only getting some burn marks on the previously shiny new robo.

“Our turn.”

The two missile launchers on Max Fury’s shoulders roared to life and fired off a horde of its own into the sky.

“Hell Sky!”

The Wings prepared to maneuver to avoid them, but this proved unnecessary as they went right past them.

At first the Wings thought they missed, and hoped that this thing wasn’t as formidable an opponent as it looked. But then, they exploded, releasing chemicals that formed clouds - storm clouds, to be precise.

A series of lightning bolts rained down; Seikuu-O moved to dodge, but the amount of them made it just a matter of time before they were struck. It was just like on that island with Hiramechimedes -

Of course, cursed Hiroto. They would have built this thing specifically with fighting Seikuu-O in mind (no doubt they had enjoyed the irony, that having been the incident where the two teams came together…)

Sure enough, the inevitable occurred, and Seikuu-O was sent hurtling to the Earth below. The siblings worked the controls and managed to avoid a complete crash landing, with Seikuu-O landing feet and hands first, with no major damage to either the robo or thrmselves.

As Seikuu-O tried to stand, Max Fury marched over, punching it. Its huge fists seemed as thick as Seikuu-O’s waist, and each blow violently shook the entire robo.

“Wings, we remember how happy you were when you were finally able to form your own robo; you thought you didn’t need to rely on us anymore, right?”

“Those aren’t your memories!” said Miu. “You’re not the Go-Ongers, just literal hot air with delusions of grandeur!”

“Silence! You’re about to learn an important lesson: yesterday’s shiny robot is tomorrow’s scrap.”

As Max Fury leaned in for another attack, Seikuu-O suddenly shot up and struck the robo, sending it staggering back, before it lost its balance and fell.

Seikuu-O got up as Max Fury struggled like a turtle that fell on its back. It was satisfying, but the Wings knew that striking the bulky robo with such force had probably done as much damage to Seikuu-O as it did to Max Fury. They weren’t going to win this by strength - the only thing they had going for them was that Seikuu-O was faster and more agile than the massive robo.

Their thoughts were interrupted by a massive humming, as thrusters on its back activated, propelling it upright again.

“Ani!”

“I know. We have to make sure our next attack makes it stay down.”

An arrow made of energy came out of Jum-BoWhale’s mouth, an energy string and Jetras serving as a bow.

“Seikuu-O! Seikuu Impulse!” shouted the Wings before releasing it.

Max Fury stood firm, and held out its arms.

“Gordom Wave!”

With that, its Gordom Engine emitted waves of distortion. As they hit it, the arrow slowed as it bent under their effect. The Wings tensely watched on as their finisher twisted and finally sizzled out just feet away from its target.

As the Wings tried of think of their next move, Max Fury turned to them.

“Flower of Wrath!”

At that, its chest opened up in three parts, each looking like flower petals. The furthest tips of them started sparking, and each shot streams of lightning to the center, which then shot out a huge beam of energy that sent Seeiku-O hurling across the battlefield until it hit a mountain.

The gas gestalt laughed as Max Fury launched a torrent of missiles that hit not just Seikuu-O but the whole area, turning what had been a shining example of nature’s beauty into Hell on Earth.

Seeking refuge from the unending barrage, Seikuu-O ducked behind a large rock formation, but all this did was buy them time. Both Wings couldn’t help but wonder if they had managed to beat the odds and cure the Go-Ongers just to fall in battle to their creation.

Then, the attack ceased. The Wings dared to hope that Max Fury had depleted its weaponry when its arm came through the rock formation and struck Seikuu-O.

The Wings’ robo fell again as Max Fury forced itself through the bare rock, debris falling on Seikuu-O and causing it more damage. Once out, it raised its foot and repeatedly stomped on the flying robo, which violently shook each time.

“Ani, Seikuu-O’s structural integrity is failing!” reported Miu.

Hiroto checked their systems, and regretted it. The next stomp would break through Seikuu-O and crush the Wings.

Hiroto and Miu could think of nothing to do but hold each each other’s hands, having always agreed if they met their end, they would do so together.

Max Fury raised its foot, but before it could lower it was riddled by a series of blasts that made the robo stagger back.

The Wings were taken by their sudden salvation.

“Ani, could it be…?”

Hiroto had the same thought, but both still felt a sense of disbelief when they saw Engine-O G6, its arm made of Gunpherd still smoking.

“Go-Ongers!” both siblings exclaimed.

The Go-Ongers gave no response to the Wings, zooming ahead to strike Max Fury.

“You sure you’re up for this, Hant?” asked Gunpei of his severely injured teammate. “You got it pretty rough…”

“I’m well enough” said Hant. “I have to make up for things, too…”

“G6 Kick!” the team cried out as Engine-O leapt into the air and struck Max Fury with its foot, forcing it back again.

“Give up now!” said Sosuke, and both siblings’ hearts were warmed hearing him sound like his usual self. “We’re not letting anyone else suffer on account of us!”

“It’s great to have you back, partner” said Speedor. “Now let’s show this upstart that they’re not a patch on the real thing!”

“Yeah, you’ll pay for coming between me and Saki!” said BearRV.

“And hey, if you’re supposed to be some knockoff of us, where’s the double of me!?” said Carrigator, as the feet he formed rose and delivered a sharp kick. “You too good for alligators?!”

Seikuu-O tried to get up, but Engine-O held out its hand to stop them.

“Stand down, Wings!” said Sosuke. “You’ve already done more than enough. We built this mechanical manifestation of mental misery; destroying it is our responsibility alone!”

Engine-O marched towards Max Fury, unleashing a series of furious punches at the mech.

“Why are you fighting us!? It’s the Wings who are your enemies!”

“Hey, the Wings can be stuck up, but their hearts are in the right place” said Sosuke. “It’s not like you’re ones to talk.”

“Yeah, you guys are jerks!” said Saki.

Max Fury sent a punch, making Engine-O staggering backwards.

“Pathetic worms! If you’re so committed to being the Wings’ lapdogs, then you can die with them!”

Max Fury’s eyes glowed, and shot out multiple lasers that struck Engine-O and the ground around it, halting its advance.

Max Fury gave them no time to recover, moving in and delivering its own punches to the robo, sparks flying off Engine-O.

The Go-Ongers’ robo threw a punch back, only for Max Fury to raise its fists and block it. The two robos grappled, seemingly evenly matched, when cannons emerged from Max Fury’s back and settled on its shoulders, firing blasts at Engine-O, making it fall and sending it sliding across the battlefield.

“Is that the best you can do? You were jokes before being exposed to the gas, and now you’re jokes again! We’re the true Go-Ongers! You’re just the afterbirth!”

Next, energy flowed from all five of its animal heads and combined into a ball of plasma.

“Kaiser Strike!”

Max Fury thrust the ball at the downed Engine-O. Before it struck its target, Seikuu-O landed in front of them, Toripter’s blades spinning and generating a gust of wind strong enough to send it right back to the source, making Max Fury drop to its knees.

“Wings! We told you, this isn’t your fight!” said Sosuke.

As the two robos faces each other, Max Fury rose and fired off its two fists like rockets, the Go-On teams seeing images of a viscous orca and a snarling dog before they collided, knocking both robos down.

Seikuu-O got up first, and held out a hand for Engine-O.

“Go-Ongers! I know you feel that defeating Max Fury is something you must do alone” said Hiroto. “But understand this: this monstrosity came about because of the divisions between us - to defeat it requires us to come together!”

The Go-Ongers were silent as various emotions went through them. Finally, Engine-O raised its hand and took hold of Seikuu-O’s.

“You’re right, Hiroto” said Sosuke. “We can’t let our foolish pride stand in the way of defeating this menace.”

“Yes, let’s show them the power of the Go-Ongers and Go-On Wings working together!” said Ren.

“We couldn’t have said it better!” said Miu.

Both teams entered commands.

“G9 Formation! Engine Fusion!” the Rangers and the Engines called out.

Seikuu-O reverted back to the individual Wing Engines. Jum-BoWhale attached to Engine-O’s back, while Toripter and Jetras took their place on its shoulders.

Once formed, the Rangers all transferred to the cockpit of the amalgamated robo.

“Engine-O G9! Tune Up! Go On!” they all shouted.

Miu and Hiroto had thought it would feel a bit awkward, to say the least, sitting next to people whom not even an hour ago were trying to kill them. Instead, it felt like things had gone back to normal, that the past week was just a bad dream.

Max Fury fired everything it had, but G9 ignored them as it took to the air.

“Steering Off! Change Handle Blaster!” cried the Go-Ongers as they detached the steering wheels and inserted their Blaster Souls into them.

“Wing Booster! Attention! Blaster Soul Set!” said the Go-On Wings as they combined their Wing Triggers and Jet Daggers.

The two teams aimed their weapons forward.

“Target Lock!”

G9’s targeting system locked onto Max Fury.

“G9 Grand Prix!” they yelled.

G9 glowed and shot out energy forms of the Engines, who raced down a simulated racetrack and flew through Max Fury.

The attack sent the robo flying. Its thrusters managed to get it up again, before they blew up. It tried to make a counterattack, but the robo could barely move, wobbling as explosions went off through the colossus.

“No!” cried the gas gestalt.

The Rangers now only needed to watch as Max Fury fell apart. Its arms fell off, living it with only frayed wires for upper limbs, and an explosion sent its head flying into the sky. Its Gordom Engine spun faster and faster until it too blew, taking the robo’s torso with it.

Inside, the fire spread to the cockpit. The flames ignited the gaseous intelligence .

“This can’t be happening! We’re not weak! Not weak…”

It spent its last moments of conciseness marinating in its hate before it burnt up.

Outside, G9 turned around and posed as what was left of Max Fury exploded.

~~~

After the destruction of Max Fury, the Go-Ongers immediately left, citing the need to get Hant medical attention. The Wings understood without it needing to be said that the Go-Ongers needed time to process what they just went though.

Now, a day later, they walked through a park, Miu carrying a brown paper bag, while Hiroto held a green orca plushie and a ‘GET WELL SOON’ balloon.

“It’s too bad we had to destroy Max Fury” said Miu. “We could always use another robo…”

Hiroto shook his head.

“That thing was built from rage and pain. No good could ever have come from it.”

The siblings stopped as they saw their destination: the Ginjiro.

“Well, here we go” said Hiroto, though Miu noticed he continued to stand still.

She understood. The Go-Ongers were cured, but this whole thing had revealed what tensions had existed between the Go-On teams, tensions the Wings had been completely unaware of. They couldn’t just act like everything was back to normal. But how would things be between them now?

She wondered if Hiroto shared her biggest fear - what if she couldn’t forget? What if the memory of the gas altered Go-Ongers was all she could think of in their presence? Would she ever feel safe again with Gunpei, Ren, and Hant? Could she see a smiling Saki without thinking of the feral girl who tried to claw her eyes out? And Sosuke… would she still find him the roguish commoner, whose passion and pride made him refuse to back down from either the Gaiark or her and her brother (and which she always suspected concealed a vulnerability her brother or even his teammates didn’t suspect) or the cruel, angry man who lead his teammates in viscously beating Hant, who tried to kill her brother in cold blood…

Well, no use putting it off, she thought, as she took the initiative to knock on the door. After the longest moment of the Sutous’ lives, Ren opened the door, his eyes popping when he saw it was them.

“Hiroto…Miu…”

“Hello. We…we came to check on Hant” said Hiroto.

“Oh…of course. Please come in.”

The two entered. Hant lay on the same checker flag bed Miu had not long ago following the brutal attack by Hammer Banki, wires attached to him. The other Go-Ongers sat around him, all looking as uncomfortable in their presence as Ren had. Ignoring this, Hiroto went to Hant and handed him the plush. Hant excitedly stroked it.

“Oh, it’s like Birca but soft and fluffy…”

The Wings found some chairs, and the two Go-On teams sat across from each other in silence.

The Go-Ongers were all looking down at the floor, seemingly terrified of facing the Wings. Saki in particular, Hiroto noticed, was avoiding looking at him, her face blushing as she felt his eyes on her. He made a note to talk to her later in private.

“I know none of us are eager to talk” he finally said. “But we can’t have this hanging over us when the Gaiark strike again. We have to address all that’s happened this past week if we’re to keep fighting side by side.”

Sosuke still averted his gaze, but nodded.

“You’re right. But, before you say anything else, there’s something we have to do.”

Before either Hiroto or Miu could reply, the able Go-Ongers rose and bowed to the Sutous.

“Thank you. From the bottom of our hearts, we thank you. We feel horrible enough about what we did to the Gaiark - if you hadn’t stopped us from going through with that insane plan of ours, if we had hurt those we’re supposed to protect…I don’t think we would have been able to live with ourselves.”

“Furthermore” said Gunpei, “we apologize for our actions towards you. Our behavior was abominable, and be assured we will never forgive ourselves.”

“And as for fighting together…” said Ren. “To be honest, we’ve been thinking of asking the Engines to find new partners.”

At that, Hiroto and Miu’s expressions turned to shock.

“What?” said Miu. “That’s crazy, you were under the influence of the gas, you’re not-“

“BOMPER told us about how the gas works” said Gunpei. “That it brings out inner demons. Everything we did, every sick desire we indulged, came from within us.”

“And not just against you” said Ren. “Look what we did to our partners, to Hant! Even Kitaneidas didn’t deserve that!”

“We outdid even the Gaiark in our evil” said Hant. “They want to conquer our world, but they’ve never indulged in petty cruelty like we did…”

“And that’s not even the worst part” said Saki. “When we were doing all those things, we were enjoying it! I can remember everything I did to you, Miu, and each time it gave me joy to see you in pain!”

“A drunk driver is still responsible for the harm he causes” said Sosuke, looking as morose as the Wings had ever seen. “That we did what we did under the influence of the gas makes no difference. If that’s what’s inside us, then we don’t deserve to be Go-Ongers.”

Hiroto and Miu looked at each other, then turned back to their comrades.

“We certainly understand why you would feel that way” said Hiroto. “But, with all due respect, that’s a load of horseshit.”

The Go-Ongers looked at the Wings in surprise.

“First off, you didn’t choose to expose yourself to this gas, it happened while you were saving the city. You’re as victims as much as anyone else in this.

“Second, everyone, no matter how noble, has demons in them. And, in this case, those demons were our fault…”

“Hiroto” said Ren, “you can’t excuse what we did because you guys were a little rude at first-“

“Please” said Miu, “let him finish.”

“Hauntology.”

The Go-Ongers looked at him confused.

“It’s a concept by the philosopher Jacques Derrida.”

“Oh right, Derrida” said Sosuke.

“It refers to the idea that the things from the past can return to haunt the present like a ghost. Not only was our treatment of you deplorable, by never addressing it, we let it fester, until it bloomed into the crisis we just went through. So…”

Both the Sutous stood up and bowed to them.

“We humbly apologize for our behavior and beg your forgiveness.“

The Go-Ongers were silent for a moment; while their relations with the Wings had certainly come a long way, they never expected this, much less after what they had put the siblings through.

“You should know, about the things we said…” said Ren. “We won’t deny that your dismissal of us hurt us more than the Gaiark ever have. But, it only did so because it had the grain of truth.”

“We had grown complacent, convinced we could easily handle anything the Gaiark could throw at us” said Gunpei. “You made us realize we had a long way to go.”

“Proving ourselves to you gave us a goal to work for” said Saki. “We’re better heroes because of you.”

“When we fought Spinning Banki, and you asked us to share our power with you…” said Sosuke. “We all felt so proud, that we had finally earned your respect. None of victories over the Gaiark have felt as great.”

Now it was the Wings’ turn to be silent, ruminating over the various emotions the Go-Ongers’ words had roused in them.

“There’s something you must understand” said Miu. “Ani and I have never had friends before. We always felt we didn’t need or desire them. Everyone we met, through school or social events, was selfish, conceited, only concerned with money, who were or would go on to make the Earth a worse place to live.”

“My graduating class may well pollute the planet as much as the Gaiark seek to” said Hiroto.

“So we decided we only needed each other. For years we were happy with that. Now, looking back, I think we hadn’t realized that it had made us cold and arrogant, taught us to look down on everyone else…

“You’re the first people in years we’ve ever had regular contact with. I suppose that’s why our social skills are fairly undeveloped. But, you’ve all made us realize how wonderful having others in our lives can be…”

The Go-Ongers took in what they just heard.

“Well…” said Sosuke. “I guess that makes us pretty special, huh?”

Hiroto nodded.

“Very much so. You all are much more than simply allies against the Gaiark; we both have come to care very much for you. At the start, we thought we were being cheated out of our glory. We didn’t understand, that it was us who would be gaining so much. You have brought us much joy in our lives, and moreover, have melted that coldness that we held in our hearts. You say we have made you better heroes, but you’ve made us better people.

“Needles to say, I can speak for Miu as well as myself when I say that we refuse to even consider the idea of working alongside anyone but you. This is an Only One job for all of us. Furthermore, from now on, I say we will all treat each other with respect, and save our anger for the Gaiark and anyone else who threatens the world.”

The Go-Ongers were again. Then, Sosuke got up and approached Hiroto.

“Hiroto, I…I mean, we…”

The Red Ranger, never skilled with words, gave up and hugged Hiroto, who reciprocated the same. Their teammates joined them, the pain of the last week forgotten.

Afterwards, Miu had a big, proud smile on her face.

“You guys, I was hoping this would all turn out well, so I decided to do something to celebrate…”

Miu reached into her bag and took out a cake box.

“I made this for all of us…” she said as she opened it to reveal the most hideous looking cake they’ve ever seen.

“Oh” said Gunpei. “You shouldn’t have…”

The Go-Ongers strained for something positive to say.

“I like those globs of color” said Ren.

“Those are our helmets” said Miu, sounding confused and a bit hurt this wasn’t obvious to everyone else.

With the exception of Hant, each took a slice and, with some trepidation, started eating.

“Wow, this is great” said Ren.

“Makes every cake I’ve had before taste like crap” said Gunpei.

Miu couldn’t help but notice that their smiles seemed strained.

“I want some…” said Hant as he reached out.

“No Hant, in your condition it’ll kill you!” yelled Gunpei in panic, before his eyes turned back to Miu. “…I mean, from how good it tastes.”

Miu lowered her head in disappointment.

“You know, Miu” said Saki, “if you’d like, I could come over some time, and help you with baking, see what you’re doing wrong…”

“Oh, could you?” replied Miu, looking at Saki like she just offered a cure for cancer.

“And you know” said Ren, “one of the many things we feel bad about from when you came over the other night is you were so excited for camping. We certainly understand why you wouldn’t, but, if you wanted to try again…?”

“We would love that” said Hiroto as Miu nodded in agreement.

They then all noticed a noise. Turning, they saw it was Sosuke, who was scarfing down Miu’s cake, to everyone’s astonishment.

“Sosuke, what are you-?”

“Miu worked hard to make this cake in honor of the friendship between our two teams” he said with his mouth still full. “The least I can do is eat it so her effort doesn’t go to waste!”

“Sosuke…” said a touched Miu.

Sosuke’s chewing suddenly slowed as he fought a grimace.

“…maybe not at Mach speed though…”

“Sosuke is right!” said Gunpei, who pocked his plate up again, and started shoveling it in his mouth with gusto. “After what we all put her through, we owe it to her!”

He took a bite, and there was an instant crunching sound.

“I think you left an egg shell in there…”

Ren and Saki started eating their slices again too.

“Well” said a smiling Hiroto as he picked up his fork again, “I can hardly call myself a good brother or friend if I leave it all up to you all.”

“You guys…” said Miu, a tear in her eye (with more coming when she took a bite as well.)

The Go-On teams all ate the horrid cake until not even a crumb was left, even Hant being allowed a small slice. Thought it had taken a great effort, and they soon fell ill (with the Wings being forced to spend the night), they could all truthfully say it was the best cake any of them had ever had.